Wellington City Council has an eclectic art collection of over 500 traditional and contemporary artworks, which can all now be explored in the Council’s new online gallery.
The new gallery replaces the old digital gallery, which was outdated, and only showed around 60% of Council’s City Art Collection, said its manager, Laura Woodward.
She says the online gallery offers in-depth access to the collection, which is being shaped to reflect the city and its diversity of people through the eyes of visual creatives.
“We want the collection to tell a story of the present, for future generations. The online gallery gives people access to all of the artworks and offers descriptions and artist biographies through an easy search function.”
“It’s super engaging and educational. You get to find out beautiful and fascinating stories about the works,” said Ms Woodward.
While some of the City Art Collection can be seen in local libraries — Te Awe and Arapaki Libraries in the CBD, Ruth Gotlieb Library in Kilbirnie and Waitohi Library in Johnsonville — the new online gallery allows all the works to be viewed in one place.
It also means researchers and art curators have better access to what we have available for loan in the collection.
“Right now, we have a painting by Georgette Brown in the Kate Sheppard House in Christchurch, and we’ll soon have artwork on loan at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. We’re always open to lending out artworks to galleries and museums,” says Ms Woodward.
The collection gets updated every year with around 10 new pieces, in alignment with the Council’s Aho Tini 2030 Arts, Culture and Creativity Strategy which focuse on supporting the careers of local artists.
“When we acquire new works, the artist or work has to have a strong connection to Te Whanganui-a-Tara,” says Ms Woodward.
“Emerging and mid-career artists with a robust art practice are our priority, and we’re excited to be adding diverse perspectives to our 140-year-old collection.
“We collect artwork for the city, from the city, of the city, and the online gallery is a great way to access it.”
