Dawn ceremony for gallery rebuild
Special moment in $6.5m redevelopment of Waikanae’s Mahara Gallery
Amauri stone from Waiorua Bay on Ka¯piti Island has been laid at a special dawn ceremony for Mahara Gallery.
The Waikanae gallery, housed in a council-owned building in Mahara Place and run by the Mahara Gallery Trust, is getting a $6.5m upgrade to home the Field Collection.
At the end of last year, the doors to the gallery were shut and the rebuild started in November.
Most of the demolition work of the old building has now been completed by contractors Crowe Construction, with foundations for the new, larger gallery starting.
The dawn ceremony was a chance to bless the site and the work which will be done.
A mauri stone acknowledges the life force of the building and the ancestors who inhabited the area in days gone by.
It blesses the site and represents the essence of the work that will be conducted in the gallery and helps to “Tu¯whitia te hopo, mairangatia te angitu¯” (eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive).
A mauri stone is laid into the earth before the building foundations are constructed.
Although mauri stones are usually not seen after they’re laid, this one will be visible through a transparent covering.
Mahara Gallery Trust Board chairman Gordon Shroff said this is a special moment in the redevelopment of the gallery.
He said the stone has been placed in the foyer of the gallery in a manner which makes it visible.
“In that respect, it is a tangible reminder of the relationship between Mahara and the iwi of Ka¯piti.”
All going well, the new gallery will open in early 2023 with the majority of the funding now secured through the Government’s regional culture and heritage fund, the Ka¯piti Coast District Council, the Waikanae Community Board and other donations raised by the Mahara Gallery Trust Board including a grant from the NZ Lottery Board’s environment and heritage fund for $450,000.
The Field Collection features 24 paintings by Frances Hodgkins along with family documents.
It is a significant asset for Ka¯piti, but to house them the gallery needs additional space for exhibition, storage, workshops, and administration, and needs to upgrade those spaces to museum standard to house the collection and to be able to attract and show significant touring exhibitions and collections from other galleries.
It is hoped the rebuild will enable Ka¯piti to have a district gallery that meets accepted museum and gallery standards and houses an art collection of national significance.