Saving the Sarjeant — the beating art of Whanganui
One morning in December 2013, staff at the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui arrived to find a piece of their world had collapsed.
Masonry from the ceiling of the then 94-year-old building had crashed to the floor during the night, indicating that the regional gallery, with an internationally significant collection of some 8300 artworks, was about to face (more) tough times.
City leaders and art lovers had spent years discussing, debating and disputing — at times acrimoniously — extensions to the gallery. The proposal was most contentious during 2004 when, it became a lightning rod in a combative campaign for the Whanganui mayoralty.
Once elected, Michael Laws led the charge to cancel the extension plans and, within weeks, the Sarjeant Gallery Trust Board resigned.
Henry Sarjeant, the English farmer who spent most of his life farming in Whanganui and donated £30,000 to start the gallery (about $7 million today), might well have swivelled in his grave.
A Save our Gallery group formed but progress was slow; then, after a decade of discontent, the ceiling started falling in on a building that housed an art collection now valued at $28.8m.
Water ingress meant the gallery was rotting from the inside out; it met just 5 per cent of the new building code’s earthquake strengthening requirements.
The place needed a major restoration which came with a price tag of around $34m (now $34.9m). How could a modest-sized regional centre, with a population of around 40,500, raise that?
Former mayor Annette Main said Whanganui wasn’t a wealthy community. But the money was raised, partly because there is growing awareness of what the Sarjeant — and the arts themselves — can do for the district.
“Art galleries might seem like the new kind of monorail when you’ve got Wha¯nga¯rei with the Hundertwasser and New Plymouth with the Len Lye but there’s a reason money is put toward these institutions,” says mayor Hamish McDouall.
“The business case stacks up, they get people through the door.”
It’s almost a silly question to ask about the merit of putting money into the Sarjeant, says Whanganui district councillor and businessman David Bennett. He sees a vibrant cultural sector as a drawcard for visitors and skilled workers who want to move from less affordable main centres but are concerned there won’t be enough to do in a regional town.
“And you can still buy a house — a perfectly good house — in Whanganui for $230,000 — $250,000. That realisation is dawning on more people.”
Whanganui District Council, local iwi, corporate sponsors and large and small donors — many from or with ties to the district — are working together with nearly $17m from Government, including the Lotteries Grant Board to fund the project.
Whanganui is ideally placed to join an art trail along the Western flank of the lower North Island, Sarjeant gallery director Greg Anderson and trust chair Nicola Williams point out.
Start at Te Papa, head to the Dowse in Lower Hutt followed by the Pataka Art + Museum in Porirua then on to Te Manawa in Palmerston North, the Sarjeant in Whanganui and the Govett-Brewster and Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth.
Universal College of Learning art and design lecturer Cecelia Kumeroa points to the Sarjeant’s annual Whanganui Art Review as an example of welcoming the community into the gallery and giving emerging artists a space to visit. Anyone living within the Whanganui River catchment area can bring an artwork in and a professional panel then selects work to be exhibited.
In 2017, 130 were selected. Sculptor Glen Hayward grew up in neighbouring Whanganui, studied in Auckland and lived in Hokianga before returning in 2015 for the Tylee Cottage Residency, an artist-inresidence programme run by the Sarjeant Gallery, the district council and Creative NZ.
“I couldn’t believe it when I returned and saw so many galleries in such a small town,” he says.
“There’s a very strong art presence, a very strong maker presence here but it’s important for a gallery like the Sarjeant not get isolated from that — from its community.”