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President’s Column: November 2018

President’s Column: November 2018

Tēnā koutou,

The wonderful exhibitions on level four are about to close as Te Papa prepares for the stunning summer exhibition Terracotta Warriors – Guardians of Immortality, which opens on 15 December until 22 April. Don’t miss the Friends preview on Friday 14 December from 3pm-6pm.

Recently we hosted the Friends of the Christchurch Art Gallery at a floor talk by Détour commissioning curator, Megan Tamati-Quennell. Megan worked closely with artist Michael Parekowhai as he created this complex and intriguing installation, one of the five new works specially commissioned for the opening of Toi Art. You can read more about Megan’s insightful talk here.

A group of Friends are just back from a very successful tour to the historic Bay of Islands with Dame Claudia Orange, while another group are soon heading to Christchurch for a fabulous weekend of art and history. Meanwhile, we are busy planning a Friends tour to historic Whanganui in early 2019, and there are still a few places left on our two exciting Friends tours to Egypt in September and October 2019.

Recently the Friends visited the Peter McLeavey Gallery, which has been celebrating 50 years with an exhibition of 50 outstanding art works from the gallery’s artists. Do go and see Peter’s own fascinating photography collection, Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph, at the Adam Gallery at Victoria University before it closes on 20 December. The Friends were very sad to hear of the passing of Denis Adam. Denis and Verna Adam have been such generous supporters of all the arts in Wellington, including the Adam Art Gallery and the NZ Portrait Gallery.

Coming up we have our new Science for Lunch series, and the final lectures in our fabulous series on fashion history. Sydney-based lecturer Dr Peter McNeil will explore two dramatic eras of change; Revolutionary Dress on 11 November looking at the transformation of fashion in the mid-eighteenth century, and Magic Fashion on 9 December, on the advent of modern fashion in the 1930s.

Ngā mihi,

Elizabeth Kay

President, Friends of Te Papa