Wallace Gallery grateful for support
Wallace Gallery has received a helping hand in the form of some much needed funding from Chorus.
For the last six months, Matamata-Piako District Mayor Jan Barnes has been working behind the scenes to secure funding for the Wallace Gallery.
Recently she received confirmation that a $20,000 annual grant application had been successful.
As soon as she received notification, she couldn’t wait to deliver the news to gallery director Justin Morgan in person.
‘‘I would like to inform you and your trust in the success I have had in obtaining an annual grant of $20,000 for the duration of your current lease contract,’’ she said.
‘‘This will be by way of an offset against the annual rental for the Wallace Gallery space within the Chorus building.’’
Barnes said she was absolutely delighted with the outcome.
‘‘I see this gallery as not only an asset in the Morrinsville community, but in the Waikato region,’’ she said.
‘‘I know this $20,000 will go a long way in your fundraising to operate the very successful Wal- lace Gallery.’’
Morgan thanked Mayor Barnes for all the work she had put in with organising the annual grant.
‘‘This is greatly appreciated. It helps out in more ways than ever because we can focus on our job which is to promote the work of talented artists from around the district, the region and New Zealand.’’
The current exhibition at the Wallace Arts Trust Collection Gallery is Mark Braunias’: Field of Vision with the opening preview taking place this Saturday October 1 from 11am - 1pm. Mark Braunias: Field of Vision comprises various themes, as well as details about the working processes of Mark Braunias from 1989 to 2016, giving prominence to selected works from the James Wallace Arts Trust Collection and the artist’s personal archives.
The exhibition is divided into chronological order through the various rooms of Pah Homestead culminating in a work-in-progress on the gallery wall itself (to be completed during the exhibition’s time frame). At the core of his work Braunias deals with notions of identity. This often manifests itself in acute and humorous social observations and a hybrid of biological/mechanical transformations, all in various stages of evolution/devolution.