Gallery Nearly Ready For Festival Shows

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31614, 27 February 1968, Page 12

Gallery Nearly Ready For Festival Shows

Final details are being completed at the Canterbury Society of Arts’ new gallery at 66 Gloucester Street so that it will be ready in time to house several exhibitions during the Fan Pacific Arts Festival. Two men who regularly call to check progress are Mr S. Mair (left), president of the society and main advocate of building the new gallery, and Mr R. R. Laidlaw, secre-tary-manager of the society, who will be responsible for the move from the Durham Street gallery. They were photographed in the spacious main hall where on Friday next week the gallery will be declared open by the Governor-General (Sir Arthur Porritt). Behind them a painter was giving a concrete wall another coat of off-white. On other floors electricians were testing wiring points and flooring contractors were sticking down tiles. The gallery rang with the clatter of a pneumatic drill as beneath them, in Mr Laidlaw’s future office, a man ripped a channel in the concrete floor for a line to a new telephone position. “It will be ready on time—it’s got to be,” said Mr Laidlaw.

In addition to all the problems arising from moving into a new gallery, furnishing a new office, mounting several exhibitions and preparing for Vice-regal and other visitors, Mr Laidlaw has to cope with the troubles that come to him as chairman of the festival visual arts committee.

Among these are missing or late art exhibitions. When there was no sign or word of the Nolan “Riverbend” panels, Mr Laidlaw arranged with Qantas to fly them from Australia.

When a British print exhibition appeared to be late in arriving by sea from Poland, Mr Laidlaw interceded to arrange for the unloading of the prints at Auckland this week. “I got authority from the festival committee for Billy Baverstock (director of the McDougall Gallery) to ring up Timbuctoo if necessary to get those prints there on time," he said. The two-storey gallery is a long, narrow building that fills most of the 44ft wide site. It is built of concrete beams and columns with concrete panels and is flanked by the' Canterbury Officers’ Club and a house now used as offices. Two rows of skylight pyramids protrude on the flat roof. The main gallery is on the first floor and runs the length of the 110 ft long building. It is divided by a mezzanine floor above it near the front, and by the central stair and lift area. The lift will be installed later.

On the split-level ground floor are offices, small galleries and storage rooms. The building, expected to cost $150,000, was designed by the architects, Minson, Hen-ning-Hanson and Dines. According to Mr Mair, the building of a new gallery was first proposed in 1938. The Government wanted the site to extend the law courts and agreed to exchange the Dur-

ham Street gallery for a new gallery to be built at 66 Gloucester Street at the Government’s expense and to the designs of the architects, Helmore and Cotterell.

The arrangement was deferred because of the Second World War, when the Army occupied the gallery, but the arrangement was not revived after the war.

The gallery, which was built in 1895, continued to deteriorate and money was not available for restoration or proper maintenance.

Judged by modern requirements, said Mr Mair, it had become a very inefficient gallery. “In 1963, the council of the society discussed the alternatives of restoration and rebuilding, and although rebuilding presented very formidable difficulties, it was decided,” said Mr Mair. “These difficulties were finally overcome in 1967 when the new gallery was commenced.

“It’s simple, good design, beautiful light and many other architectural features make it a building of which the city can be proud and which must stimulate even more interest in the visual arts in Canterbury. The public will be able to enjoy many future exhibitions in a fine new building.” The Durham Street gallery has been sold to the Justice Department. Friday, March 8, opening of the Canterbury Society of Arts’ new gallery 8 p.m. No further invitations available. Sunday, March 10—March 30, Exhibitions, Rodin and his contemporaries, Sidney Nolan’s “Riverbend” panels, International Photographic Exhibitions, Gold and Silversmiths’ exhibition, Cardew pottery and Canadian photographs.