Exhibitions celebrate gallery relocation

Bill Milbank has been behind the scenes of Wanganui's cultural core for more than 30 years, and although his gallery recently vacated its home in Taupo Quay, it will not be missed as it reopens in Bell St.
And to celebrate the relocation to the old Druids' Lodge, 1b Bell St, gallery owner Bill Milbank and New Zealand artist Philip Trusttum will be opening two exhibitions: Hinterland - a loose glance back to our Raetihi roots and in the Trusttum Showroom Philip Paints People - Trusttum works selected from the past three decades.
The Hinterland exhibition was inspired by the fact that Philip Trusttum and his major dealer Bill Milbank had a shared history with childhoods spent in Raetihi.
Mr Milbank was brought up on a farm at Mangaeturoa, about 5km from Raetihi.
Attending Ruapehu College, he played rugby for the college and Ruapehu reps, but he was also a dab hand with a pencil, excelling at graphic design.
He remembers being in town for the fortnightly sale days, and several times a week to go to the pictures at the Theatre Royal, something he says first sparked his interest in the arts.
There was a hitching rail outside the bank, and the main street was wide enough to turn a dray around. Farming, he says, was fairly buoyant then, and Raetihi was the big, vibrant town of the Waimarino, while Ohakune was the "dump" and, at the time, he and his siblings were expected to take up the reins on the family farm.
Upon leaving school, however, he realised farming was not his dream career and moved downriver to Wanganui.
"I realised, as well, that there wasn't enough room for us all to take up farming. As technology developed and people could work larger areas of land, farm sizes grew, the number of owners declined and so began a large migration from the area.
"It was also a time of great social change, and the world seemed like an exciting place to be discovered."
In Wanganui he initially worked as a builder before employing his school talent for draughtsmanship working for architects, and in town planning for the council before venturing overseas.
He returned to Wanganui and took up a position at the Sarjeant Gallery as a gallery technician.
There he worked for two years, learning the ropes and becoming acquainted with the gallery's vast and historically valuable collection before "falling into" the position of acting director of the gallery.
He was later officially appointed director and there he remained for 27 years.
Trusttum also lived in the Waimarino town for the first five years of his life, 1940-45. His dad Bill was a Methodist lay preacher and scoutmaster, played rugby for Waikato/King Country and drove transport trucks.
The steep drops from the Parapara stretch of SH4 are etched in his memory, as are the endless rain, the encroaching bush and morepork calls, and the slightly claustrophobic effect of the landscape - especially Mt Ruapehu.
"You felt that the landscape was pretty powerful."
And that is the subject of many of the works in the Hinterland exhibition, which deals largely with the geographical landscape of the Waimarino and reflects on the artist and dealer's respective histories in the region.
Milbank is New Zealand's largest holder of Trusttum's works, and also "the most engaged in his work" and the gallery's biggest room is reserved for displaying Trusttum's work, in partnership with the artist.
The Trusttum shows are planned to change every two or three months and are expected to attract potential purchasers from outside the region.