Join Adam Art Gallery curator Stephen Cleland on a tour of the current exhibition Out of Site: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection.
Recent events last year – a storeroom upgrade, seismic activity, and the closure of the university’s Karori Campus – resulted in over half of Victoria University of Wellington’s Art Collection requiring relocation. Coordinating the movement of hundreds of fragile objects was a significant project and the process gave the Adam Art Gallery, the Collection’s custodian, cause to reflect on the relation of the art works to their context. Out of Site – Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection is the outcome of this exercise, and an opportunity for you to view works seldom seen together.
Out of Site draws out stories that link key works to their environs through historical association, symbolic allusion, photographic documentation, and by site-specific intention.
The VUW Art Collection currently numbers 576 items. Since 1999, the Adam Art Gallery has overseen the professional management of the Collection, working with the VUW Art Collection Trust to care for and develop the Collection for the benefit of staff, students and the wider public. Through an active acquisition programme and the addition of works from the Wellington College of Education when it became part of Victoria University, the Collection has doubled in size since 2009.
The Adam Art Gallery is located on the main Kelburn Campus of Victoria University and is next to the Student Union Building. ‘Getting there’ instructions here.