Sculpture campaign
Fund nears $1 million
An ambitious campaign to raise $1 million for a new Ron Mueck sculpture for the city has already raised nearly $900,000.
The Christchurch Art Gallery launched the fundraising campaign in July and has commissioned the internationally-renowned Australian artist to create a new sculpture for the city.
Seven donations of $100,000 each have already been pledged to the campaign, along with $122,000 raised at a recent gala dinner at the gallery.
A crowd-funding campaign on website Pledgeme.co.nz had already attracted more than $70,000 in pledges by yesterday, about a third of the $207,000 target that needs to be reached by November 5.
Mueck’s artworks enchanted thousands when they came to Christchurch in 2010. The show broke attendance records at the gallery, attracting 135,000 visitors and sparking queues around the block on the final weekend.
Gallery director Jenny Harper said it was not yet clear exactly what Mueck would create for the city. ‘‘We are flying blind in that we are not sure what he will make and what size it will be,’’ she said in September.
‘‘I think he has the germ of an idea. It is hard to describe. It is somewhat figurative.
‘‘What he is making will put a smile on people’s faces.’’
One of the rewards for the crowd-funding campaign is the chance for people that pledge more than $10,000 to be among the first to see the new sculpture when it is delivered to Christchurch Art Gallery next year.
If the crowd-funding campaign meets its $207,000 target, it will break the gallery’s record for the largest amount of money raised through crowd-funding in New Zealand. The gallery raised $206,000 on PledgeMe for Michael Parekowhai’s Chapman’s Homer bronze bull artwork in 2013.
The Mueck sculpture will be the fifth and final significant artwork purchased by the gallery to mark five years of closure after the February 2011 earthquakes. All four artworks have been bought with private donations from the Christchurch community and the support of the gallery’s foundation.
Parekowhai’s large bronze sculpture of a bull on a piano was bought with donations and a crowd funding campaign in 2013. The second of the five major artworks added to the city’s collection was Bebop by New Zealand artist Bill Culbert in 2014, which is suspended above the marble staircase in the gallery. The third was British artist Martin Creed’s Everything is going to be alright neon artwork on the outside of the gallery building and the fourth was British artist Bridget Riley’s abstract Cosmos painted onto a wall inside the gallery.
Christchurch Arts Gallery Foundation chairman Mike Stenhouse, who heads the gallery’s fundraising arm, said the crowdfunding campaign had already attracted 140 pledges including an ‘‘unexpected’’ $10,000 donation from London.