Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery to reopen after $70m makeover

• Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery is 105 years old, heritage-listed and famed for its distinctive 14 metre-high dome and Oamaru stone exterior.
• It is home to a nationally significant collection of more than 9000 items.
• It was closed in 2014 for earthquake strengthening.
• A repair and upgrade cost $70 million.
• The reimagined Sarjeant Gallery adds a west-facing atrium acting as a new entrance linking the original building to the new state-of-the-art Te Pātaka o Tā Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa wing.
• The new wing includes climate-controlled storage, exhibition spaces, workshops, photographic studio, classrooms, retail and cafe spaces.
• The design was led by Warren and Mahoney architects, and the new wing incorporates visual narratives developed with Te Kāhui Toi o Tūpoho.
• The overarching concept of kānapanapa, the phenomenon of light from the Whanganui river environment, is embodied in the new architecture.

Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui and its shimmering new wing will be unveiled for the first time on Saturday following a $70 million makeover that has been a decade in the making.

The more than 100-year-old neo-classical Sarjeant Gallery, with its distinctive dome and Oamaru stone exterior, was closed for earthquake strengthening in 2014.

But rather than simply being restored to its former glory, it has been reimagined with the black-granite addition - Te Pātaka o Tā Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa - named for Whanganui River rangatira, the late Sir Archie Taiaroa.

The new wing was designed in collaboration with iwi artists to reflect tribal stories.

Te Rūnanga o Tūpoho member John Maihi helped appoint the artists group - Te Kahui Toi - to work with Warren and Mahoney Architects on the design.

"We had to get a theme. We looked at the theme and we looked at kānapanapa as the theme in relationship to the glittering waters or the shimmering waters [of the Whanganui awa].

"So the name pātaka came up. Usually it's a place where you store food, but we what we talked about was it was place where we're storing knowledge."

Gallery director Andrew Clifford said the new building had a deeply embedded cultural narrative.

"So, the weaving, the sort of current that flows through the way that granite is angle, these little metal inserts called tiota that will catch the light at different times very much like shimmering of light on the river and so on.

"There's carved waka in the foyer that connects the two building together to create that continuous flow between them like the umbilical cord that enables the two to co-exist."

The pātaka was also the kind of modern facility necessary to care for the gallery's 9000 artworks.

"Below the gallery spaces in the new building you've got the cafe, shop, event spaces and staff spaces. Below that we've got - so we're sort of doubling and tripling the footprint as we go down underground - back of house spaces, workshops and proper spaces to do conservation work.

"And then projecting out underground on the same footprint again is that [climate controlled] collection store."

The revamped Sarjeant - which now boasts a footprint of 45,000sqm - was paid for via a combination of government grants ($42 million), private donations ($11 million) and a district council contribution of $17 million.

Whanganui mayor Andrew Tripe said the ratepayer investment - 27 percent of the total cost - was worth it.

"We've already seem a number of new galleries open in town and it become a destination with Time Out magazine and National Geographic.

"In addition to that I often talk about taking Whanganui to the world and bringing the world to Whanganui and I believe right now we can stand alone and stand strong as being a global citizen rather than just a regional backwater."

Sarjeant Gallery Trust chair Nicola Williams and her group had raised more than $11 million, which had helped trigger the government contribution to the project.

She said the unveiling would be emotional.

"I'm going to have trouble because so many of our benefactors and unfortunately it's too many to name are not going to be here on the day, but I'm sure they will be swirling around looking down on us and feeling incredibly proud of what's been achieved."

It would also be a poignant moment for Maihi.

"I haven't been through yet. I don't want to see it until it is really open. I know in my mind it will be beautiful.

"I suppose I will get a little bit emotional but I mean to say now it belongs to everybody. Some of our people say it belongs to us, but I say no it belongs to the world. It belongs to the world."

The opening exhibition for the revamped Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery - Nō Konei / From Here - will feature existing works and newly commissioned pieces with a connection to Whanganui.

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