Field Collection Trust trustees, from left Kay and Simon Brown with Toi Mahara director Janet Bayly and the crated Field Collection.
Field Collection Trust trustees, from left Kay and Simon Brown with Toi Mahara director Janet Bayly and the crated Field Collection.
The nationally-recognised Field Collection of artworks — the catalyst for the redevelopment of Mahara Gallery in Waikanae — has moved from storage in the Paraparaumu public library to its new home in the gallery.
The collection is notable for the inclusion among its 44 works of 24 paintings by New Zealand’s most celebrated expatriate artist Frances Hodgkins.
Although Frances and her sister Isabel were born and raised in Dunedin, the collection accumulated in Kāpiti because Waikanae became the centre of family life in the years after Isabel married local businessman and politician, William Field.
It was preserved in later years by Isabel’s son and Frances’ nephew, Peter Field senior. After his and his wife Dorothy’s death, responsibility for the collection passed to the Field Collection Trust.
In 2000, following an exhibition at the recently established Mahara Gallery, it embarked on a tour of New Zealand provincial centres.
Field Collection trustee Kay Brown recalls concern at the time about where to store the collection after the tour had been completed.
“The euphoria of a successful national tour was muted by the fact that the building occupied by Mahara Gallery didn’t have the room or professional capability to store the collection.
“That left us scratching our heads and wondering where it could go.
“Someone suggested we talk to Kāpiti Coast District Council.
“We did, and they agreed that the collection could be stored temporarily in the library building.
“We never dreamed we’d need the storage space for just over 20 years but at the time it gave us some breathing space to work on a permanent home.
“We’d come to the conclusion that because of the strong Kāpiti connection, Mahara Gallery was the logical place for it to go.
“But this couldn’t happen without a major redevelopment of the gallery building.
“At a practical level, this meant museum standard light and climate control as well as professional expertise — essential for fragile artworks that range from 120 to 90 years old.
Toi Mahara director Janet Bayly (left) with curator Victoria Robson opening a box containing Oval Portrait of Isabel Hodgkins attributed to Girolamo P Nerli.
“The rest as they say is history, but a longer history than we had expected at the outset.”
The redevelopment became a partnership project involving the Field Collection Trust, the Mahara Gallery Trust Board and Kāpiti Coast District Council.
The Field Collection Trust provided the collection, the Gallery Trust Board raised two-thirds of the capital cost and the council provided the land, one third of the capital cost and an annual grant towards operational costs.
The newly installed Field Collection will be the largest collection of Frances Hodgkins’ work in public ownership outside Te Papa, Auckland Public Art Gallery and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Mahara director Janet Bayly and curator Victoria Robson, assisted by art installer Andy Cummins and council staff, completed the transfer from the Paraparaumu library to the new gallery on Wednesday.
“The bulk of the collection was stored in three large crates,” Bayly said.
“It was a matter of moving the crates as carefully as possible from Paraparaumu to Waikanae.
“They are currently being securely stored close to the purpose-built storage area where they will be installed when a few finishing touches have been completed.
“Some will be included in our opening show and a selection of works will regularly be exhibited.”
Bayly said the moment the collection was carried into Toi Mahara was special and just a little emotional.
“Just as Frances Hodgkins was an artistic wanderer who in spite of her itinerant nature, came to regard Waikanae as ‘ancestral’, there is great satisfaction in providing a permanent and easily accessible home for this significant collection of her works.
“And providing a home for the Field Collection has been the catalyst for achieving a significant advance in the quality of the service we can provide our community as the district gallery for Kāpiti.”
