Brian Rudman: Let's have two art galleries - then we can trump Te Papa

Now where were we? Ah, that's right, down on the Tank Farm musing about the shiny new New Zealand Museum of Modern Art.

From the calls I've been getting, many in the art world would prefer a new gallery on the rehabilitated Wynyard Wharf site to the proposed $90 million remodelling of the existing gallery.

But strangely, for an otherwise talkative lot, the doubters are reluctant to publicly question the project. Whether this comes from a respect for those pushing it or fear of falling out with them, I don't know. Maybe a bit of both.

But for those who know there is a better solution, now is the time - because the project is stalled by an appeal to the Environment Court - to let the Auckland City Council know of your doubts.

In a nutshell, it's being argued that the big flaw in the plan to reshape the existing building is that the $90 million will not solve the art gallery's problem.

It won't provide sufficient space to accommodate the big international blockbuster shows we want to stop over in Auckland, while at the same time, adequately displaying the treasures of the city's own 12,500-item collection.

To the art world critics, that is reason enough to favour a new gallery elsewhere. And as the region searches for a building to highlight the Tank Farm restoration project, what better happenstance could there be?

Add to that the continuing lack of onsite storage after the Kitchener St redevelopment and the damage the remodelling will do to the neighbouring parkland and the historic existing building, and it seems obvious the city council should be revisiting the options.

If I were gallery director Chris Saines, I wouldn't be looking at it as an either/or situation, but as one of expansion. He should be fighting for two addresses, not one.

Instead of the 1887 building being enveloped in slabs of 21st century glass and steel, it should be stripped of its 1970s accretions, and restored to its 19th century finest.

On its walls we could then hang some of the treasures that for too long have been hidden away in climate-controlled obscurity.

There are those in the book world who would love to be able to better display the treasures of the public library collection, too.

Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand and founding benefactor of Auckland's public library and art gallery, gave Aucklanders some of the rarest books in the collection. He also donated 53 paintings, including works by William Blake and Henry Fuseli.

What could be better than to unite these treasures in a wing or room of the building which was erected in 1887 to house them?

More than 90 per cent of the collection is works on paper - etchings and drawing by some of the great names of European art. Also hidden away in collections at the gallery and the Auckland Museum are the sketches and paintings of early explorers and settlers. How wonderful to see this art - and history - at last finding a place on gallery walls.

At the Tank Farm, we could have the national art museum that $320 million of taxpayers' money later, Te Papa has failed to deliver.

Thanks to 150 years of generous benefactors and Auckland ratepayers, we have the best art collection - particularly of New Zealand works - in the country.

Once the new gallery was built, we'd have a strong case for proposing the "national" collection come north, where at least it would get a showing.

It could also be future-proofed in the expectation that the spirit of generosity that has built the collection will continue.

A few years ago, trustees of the 700-item Chartwell collection of modern New Zealand art transferred their paintings from Hamilton to the Auckland Gallery because of the larger audience and hope of better display. A Tank Farm gallery would enable this wish to be better fulfilled.

Also at the back of everyone's mind is what is to become of the extensive James Wallace collection, and Jenny Gibbs' treasure trove of Colin McCahons and other works.

Proposing dedicated spaces for gifts in a new development would be a signal to any future benefactor that their collection was going into safe hands.