Funding included $1.150m from TECT, Pub Charity and Tauranga Art Gallery Foundation external grants and a Tauranga Art Gallery Trust contribution of $3.274m.
Tauranga Art Gallery Trust chair Rosemary Protheroe said the revamp had come from two different directions.
“When the council announced Te Manawataki o Te Papa, we [Gallery Trust] sat back on our haunches and thought, ‘wow, this is a fantastic opportunity for us’.”
Protheroe told the Bay of Plenty Times the gallery had to reorient to align with the new precinct.
“We needed to be taking our position as part of the larger precinct, and in doing that, it opened other opportunities to look at what the public was asking from us.”
Tauranga would have a “state-of-the-art facility”.
“We have achieved a fantastic space that is future-proofed and vibrant, it’s for generations to come.”
The gallery team continued work offsite during the closure, creating a pop-up gallery in central Tauranga, running children’s art workshops and continuing ongoing artist engagement.
Seismic strengthening, lighting and air-conditioning systems were upgraded bringing the gallery up to international museum standards. Photo / Supplied
The gallery will reopen with nine exhibits by artists from across New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific.
Its reopening line-up includes exhibitions and collaborations showcasing portraiture, textile art, jewellery, video work and augmented reality (AR) art experiences.
Gallery visitors can experience Kereama Taepa’s Whakairo – an augmented reality art experience.
Taepa said it had felt “like an age” since the gallery journey had begun.
“I’m so excited to finally share the work with everyone and unleash it into the world.”
He said origins and starting points were a theme running through the installation, and he was grateful to be able to create for the new gallery space.
“My very first exhibited AR artwork was also here at the gallery, back in 2012, so it feels like a full circle thing too.”
Other works include pieces by Samoan mother and daughter, Pusi and Vaimaila Urale and, showing for the first time in Tauranga, work by senior artist Darcy Nicholas.
Nicholas’ exhibition draws together a curated selection of drawings, paintings, jewellery and carvings spanning nearly six decades of practice.
Toi Tauranga Art Gallery director Sonya Korohina said the biggest challenge was being closed for two years.
“We’ve been a part of the community for 16 years and are the creative fabric for our local artists, so being closed has been difficult to not have that connection.”
She said an art gallery in the city centre would give a “sense of place”.
“Having a cultural institution that you can engage with through art as a portal is a way for our community to build that sense of place, identity and understand different perspectives.”
Korohina told the Bay of Plenty Times the gallery represented artists not only from the Bay of Plenty, but also nationally and internationally.
“With contemporary artists, art enables us to understand and see different perspectives, and see the world differently, more than just through our phones.
“We live in such a global world right now that often we’re not anchored, and that’s what art really can do.”
The gallery will open to the public with a free community celebration on Saturday, November 15, from 10am to 4pm.
Kaitlyn Morrell is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.