THE PRESS FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1982. New art gallery proposal

Press, 18 June 1982, Page 12

THE PRESS FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1982. New art gallery proposal

The idea of a new art gallery for Christchurch has been advanced before, but the case was put particularly forcefully on Wednesday by the director of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Mr John Coley. The occasion was the beginning of the celebrations to mark 50 years since the establishment of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. This seems a sound enough time to reflect on the place that the gallery occupies in the life of the city and to see what the needs are for the future. One significant consideration about the city’s main art gallery is that Christchurch did not have to pay for the building of the gallery; the cost was met by Mr Robert McDougall, a managing director of Aulsebrooks who, having been approached by a canvasser seeking funds for a gallery, undertook to build the gallery at his own expense. The Christchurch City Council has met the cost of staff and upkeep as well as much of the costs for the collec-' tion.

The gallery was designed, as its architect, Mr Edward Armstrong, said on Wednesday, to house a static collection. In the 50 years that have passed since the gallery was opened, art galleries have expanded their functions and the work of preserving and exhibiting collections has become much more specialised. The collection has grown larger and the community has been changing. Art is now taught much more generally in primary schools, even in pre-school classes, in secondary schools, in technical institutes, in the teachers’ colleges, . and in universities. Art history has become one of the subjects that can be taken at University Bursary level in secondary schools. The general awareness of art and the need for exhibitions, even as an adjunct to teaching, has increased. At the same time people are staying longer at schools and the availability of art books and television programmes has heightened an appreciation of art. This means that it is no longer appropriate to consider an art gallery as a static display to be viewed occasionally as a civic ornament.

The gallery has long passed that point and now employs nine full-time staff as well as part-time staff. For too long the gallery was unfairly, left to the almost single-handed efforts of one able custodian. The change has presented its own problems because of the need to accommodate staff. Provision is being made by the City Council this, year for extra room. The collection has also grown to the point at which it cannot all be put on display.

Certain paintings are rotated for display. The collection, the staff, and society’s needs, have outgrown the gallery. The plan to provide more space will provide muchneeded, but perhaps temporary, relief. Should consideration be given to the building of a new art gallery? Mr Coley obviously, and not surprisingly, thinks so. In the planning of important projects in the city it might be argued that the Town Hall having been completed, new civic offices having been found, and a new library having been built, it is time to consider the building of a new art gallery, possibly linked, as Mr Coley suggests, to the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. The question of priorities and finance will be crucial. The Christchurch City Council already has to meet a number of heavy debt repayments. If the Christchurch City Council is depended on to undertake such a project alone, the idea of a new gallery might have to be put off for a very long time. The building of a new art gallery should not depend on the Christchurch City Council alone. Whenever it is built, and the next year or two would seem hopeless for money reasons alone, it should be a project for the whole of Christchurch.

The present inability to look cheerfully on the raising of finance should not preclude longer-term consideration.' In particular, nothing should be done by the Christchurch City Council to alienate the piece of land opposite . the Canterbury Museum on which the youth hostel stands and on which there is a car park. Mr Coley’s idea of an art gallery there has many attractions. Nor should too rigid a view be taken of the form of an art gallery. If revenue is needed from a carpark on the site, for example, it should be possible to incorporate a car-park into the design of a new building. Mr Coley’s suggestions make a new art gallery sound rather like a smaller version of the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris. This centre attracts a great many people, including tourists, who generate a large amount of revenue. Obviously such an idea needs to be co-ordinated with the Arts Centre there already. The two should be able to complement one another, rather than compete. Such a dream is not impossible, even if it cannot be realised immediately. In the meantime it needs to be thought about and a long-term plan formulated. The fiftieth birthday of the McDougall Gallery is as fitting a time as any for a resolution that a new gallery be put firmly on the list of civic projects, if possible, by all the councils in the city.