Redeveloped Toi Tauranga Art Gallery now open: I’m quite overwhelmed with what we have achieved’

The problem with the Tauranga Art Gallery was that it faced the wrong way. The building originally belonged to a bank and had stood securely on the corner of Wharf and Willow Sts since the early 1960s. When it opened, the mostly concrete, modernist building boasted an impressive glass facade,
a secure concrete safe and, in a first for the region, air conditioning.

It took almost 40 years for art to meet commerce. In 1999, the Tauranga Art Gallery Trust bought the building using two large bequests from local artists, along with some council funding. The conversion from bank to art gallery took eight years, but in 2007 the work was finally complete. Then-prime minister Helen Clark made the trip to the bay to cut the ribbon and officially open the Tauranga Art Gallery. The redesign was considered a triumph, winning an NZIA national architecture award in 2009.

Through all of this, the building was facing the right way. But when the Tauranga City Council commissioners envisioned a fully redeveloped cultural hub in 2021, they realised that it wasn’t.

Titled Te Manawataki o Te Papa, the Heartbeat of Te Papa, theirs was a grand vision: a major civic redevelopment that encompassed building a new museum, a new library, new civic whare or council chambers, landscaping and connecting the area with the nearby Baycourt Community and Arts Centre and a total overhaul of the Toi Tauranga Art Gallery.

Because, as mentioned, it was facing the wrong way.

Gallery director Sonya Korohina. Photo / Supplied

“When we came on board, the brief that we were given was to reorient the entrance,” principal architect Vajini Pannila says, explaining that the building faced away from the design and flow of the cultural precinct. It disconnected the gallery from the broader vision for Te Papa, severing the gallery from its purpose as an anchor of the space.

Sonya Korohina, the gallery’s kaiwhakahaere matua/director, says it was important that the new entrance broke down any potential barriers that could prevent people from coming in and engaging with the art. They wanted it to be an invitation and to pique people’s natural curiosity.

It is no accident that when you’re standing outside in the newly manicured laneway, your eye is shepherded through the entrance’s tall glass windows, around curved Hinuera stonework designed to soften the hard edges of the building’s brutalist design, and given a glimpse deep into the gallery’s open and airy central exhibition space.

“It acts almost as a portal into a different world, where you can see the art from outside,” Pannila says. “Traditionally, you’d have an entrance and then you’d have your big reveal quite deep into the journey through the gallery.

“The idea of blurring the threshold and bringing people in was really important,” Korohina adds. “We wanted people to come as far into the building as possible before they realise they are experiencing art.”

The redeveloped gallery opened on November 15 after being closed for two years to allow the $9.6 million refit to be done.

Visitors at the augmented reality exhibition Whakairo, by Kereama Taepa. Photo / Supplied

Of course, the gallery’s redesign wasn’t constrained just to its door. The interior was completely redeveloped and modernised to make the gallery more inclusive and encourage people from all backgrounds to enter. The space was carefully designed to maximise openness and engagement with art, while reflecting local heritage and community needs, such as with an education centre and accessibility features.

Exhibition flexibility is also a key feature, with the interior divided into various galleries that can accommodate small, medium and large-scale works, including installations of up to 7.8m in height. Conversely, there are also tiny moments of wonder throughout, waiting to be discovered.

“Hidden in the fabric of our walls are little wonder boxes,” Korohina says. “Children – and adults – have to find them. When you do, you tap the little door and it opens to reveal a work within.”

That’s just one example of the playful nature of the redesigned space and how much deep thought has gone into encouraging visitors to engage with the works and to ensure the gallery feels approachable to everyone.

“We’re the only regional gallery in the Bay of Plenty, so we have to be something to everybody,” Korohina says.

“What we do over a course of 18 months is show a range of exhibitions that represent a range of artistic practices at different ages and ethnicities and so on. We aim to display works from the collection annually. We have 534 works in our collection, and we will be actively looking to grow that, now that we have a new storage space as well.”

Since its inception, the gallery has enjoyed a reputation as a space for emerging and experimental artists to show. It gives the community a first look at cutting-edge contemporary work but also gives the many holidaymakers that flock to the region a reason to stop in at the gallery.

“We’re known to work with artists before they ascend and get really big,” Korohina says, likening the gallery to an incubator. “We can do more challenging shows. It’s often the first time people get to see an artist, which is really exciting. Then they see them again in Auckland or somewhere else, and go, ‘Oh, yes, I saw them in Toi Tauranga.’

“The gallery really is a community space in its design. I want to be able to give back, not only to our community but also to our artists,” Korohina says.

“It’s really important for our artists working at this level to have the opportunity to be able to develop shows in a purpose-designed space that can best showcase their work. It’s really special.”

She pauses and says, “I’m quite overwhelmed with what we have achieved.”

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