Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery redevelopment gets $2 million funding boost

Te Pātaka o Sir Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa wing is nearing the internal fit-out phase. Photo / Bevan Conley

Funding boosts for the Sarjeant Gallery redevelopment will take some pressure off the contribution from Whanganui ratepayers.

Whanganui District Council chief executive David Langford said last month the Sarjeant would make up around 1 per cent of rates for 2023/24, up from 0.5 per cent in the previous two years, but that figure could now change.

Funding of $2 million from the Government’s Better Off scheme was secured just before Christmas.

“We have also been bequeathed another $850,000 from an estate,” Langford said.

“That will reduce the amount for ratepayers to pick up when we go through our Annual Plan process, which we will be consulting with the community on in a couple of months’ time.”

In March 2022, it was announced the cost of the project had blown out by more than $9m, with the council needing to cover some of it.

The total cost of the redevelopment will be $64.4m.

In all, ratepayers would fund around 25 per cent of the project, Langford said.

Sarjeant Gallery Trust chairwoman Nicola Williams said her fundraising efforts were focused on setting up ongoing funding streams for the gallery via an endowment fund.

“There will be an annual top-up required by the gallery for education, acquisitions of new artworks, restoration work and to help fund travelling exhibitions so the gallery can be truly outstanding,” Williams said.

“Ratepayer funding is the opex [operating expenditure] and keeping the doors open, and we [the trust] need to be able to provide a capital fund that will help deliver outstanding programmes. That’s the cream on top.”

The gallery is set to reopen in April/May 2024. Photo/ Bevan Conley

Seed funding for the endowment fund was the $500,000 Ngaire Young bequest.

An anonymous bequest of $1m was also close to being completed, Williams said.

“When the budget for the redevelopment was finalised last year, the Thousand Stars funding started going towards the endowment funds as well.”

The Thousand Stars initiative, which aimed to get 1000 people to donate $1000 over a four-year period, has raised more than $500,000 since it began in 2014.

As the redevelopment project progresses, all the main structural steel members have been installed for the uppermost level of the tower block for the new Te Pātaka o Sir Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa wing.

Preparation is now under way for its internal fit-out and refurbishment of the original gallery.

Installation of the fit-out elements will be staged to follow the last of the structural works.

The outdoor patio space is currently being finalised, and Whanganui District Council will soon call for expressions of interest from café operators to take on the tenancy.

Sarjeant membership is currently sitting at just over 400.

“This is the perfect time to join the gallery as a ‘friend of the Sarjeant’,” Williams said.

“We are in the most exciting time in the gallery’s history since it opened in 1919, and [members] will get inclusion in all re-opening news and event updates.”

The Sarjeant Gallery will reopen in April/May 2024, with the temporary premises Sarjeant on the Quay closing its doors at the end of June this year in preparation.