{"id":595314,"date":"2026-09-09T20:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595314\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T20:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:04:13","slug":"revamped-toi-tauranga-art-gallery-draws-almost-100000-visitors-in-seven-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595314\/","title":{"rendered":"Revamped Toi Tauranga Art Gallery draws almost 100,000 visitors in seven months"},"content":{"rendered":"

It operated from a pop-up venue on Devonport Rd before reopening its revamped space<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n

The project also included seismic strengthening, redeveloping the interior to upgrade gallery spaces, moving the education area and expanding the gift shop.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn artist’s impression of what Te Manawataki o Te Papa, Tauranga’s future civic precinct, will look like.<\/p>\n

Outgoing gallery director Sonya Korohina said the gallery, cafe and retail store recorded just over 98,100 visits between its reopening and the end of the financial year in June.<\/p>\n

That included about 64,500 through the cafe entrance to the building, and 33,600 through the gallery entrance.<\/p>\n

Korohina said the counts were for the whole building, not art gallery visitors alone.<\/p>\n

This is compared with about 20,700 visits while the gallery was operating from the pop-up site in the 2023\/24 year. The last full year in the gallery\u2019s original site, 2021\/22, attracted about 27,800 visits.<\/p>\n

Korohina said 18 to 30-year-olds had been the gallery\u2019s largest visitor demographic over summer, despite traditionally being one of its harder audiences to attract.<\/p>\n

She said the increase reflected more people returning to and working in the city centre.<\/p>\n

Korohina said visitor numbers often depended on the programmes being shown.<\/p>\n

Indigenous-focused programmes led to strong M\u0101ori engagement in the opening season.<\/p>\n

\"ToiToi Tauranga Art Gallery director Sonya Korohina. Photo \/ Brydie Thompson<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really important for us that, for mana whenua and tangata whenua, it\u2019s their place too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tauranga City Council provided 70% of the gallery\u2019s operating funding in the past financial year, or $1.43m.<\/p>\n

Other key funders included the Western Bay of Plenty District Council (about $47,700); grants, entry fees and donations ($255,000); sponsors ($114,000). The retail store sales and cafe lease collected income of about $112,000.<\/p>\n

The city council also funded 54.7% of the $9.65m redevelopment cost while 45.3%, or $4.37m, came from the Tauranga Art Gallery Trust, community grants and foundation contributions. <\/p>\n

In the gallery\u2019s annual report, chairwoman Rosemary Protheroe described the reopening as \u201cextraordinary\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the gallery produced a significant surplus but said it was largely because of one-off favourable entries linked to financing the redevelopment project. <\/p>\n

\"ToiToi Tauranga Art Gallery director Sonya Korohina (left) and Tauranga Art Gallery Trust chairwoman Rosemary Protheroe. Photo \/ Kaitlyn Morrell<\/p>\n

She said normal operations recorded a small deficit because of reopening costs.<\/p>\n

The gallery reported more than 12% growth in revenue from retail, cafe lease income, admission fees, sponsorships and patrons, and retail gross profit exceeded targets by 67%. <\/p>\n

M\u0101ori artist publications and design products were among the strongest sellers.<\/p>\n

The gallery is planning a major programme of exhibitions and events for its 20th anniversary next year, including revisiting one of its earliest exhibitions and celebrating Tauranga\u2019s artistic history.<\/p>\n

The gallery delivered 20 exhibitions featuring 45 artists and displayed 500 children\u2019s portraits during the reopening programme.<\/p>\n

Korohina said it was already benefiting from the wider Te Manawataki o Te Papa development and expected the benefits to grow when the library and museum were fully operating.<\/p>\n

She said these would create further opportunities for school visits and educational programmes.<\/p>\n

A report showed 1955 school students participated in education programmes and 185 children attended holiday programmes.<\/p>\n

She said the cultural precinct would attract tourists, bring vibrancy to the city centre and generate economic benefits.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn artist’s impression of the civic whare, museum and exhibition centre. Image \/ Tauranga City Council<\/p>\n

Korohina will leave the gallery at the end of next month after nine-and-a-half years on and off in various roles, including as a director since 2023.<\/p>\n

She said working on the redevelopment project was a \u201conce-in-a-lifetime opportunity\u201d and when it was finished she \u201cdesperately needed a rest\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gallery\u2019s on a real high, so it\u2019s a great time for me to step aside and a great time for someone new to come in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve achieved everything I wanted to and now I\u2019m just ready for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The library and community hub, He Puna Manawa, reached practical completion in July and the fit-out is underway.<\/p>\n

It will close on Sunday to start its move from the temporary location on Devonport Rd before its scheduled reopening on October 16.<\/p>\n

A community celebration day will be held on October 17, with the council saying there will be activities for all ages. <\/p>\n

The museum, which will include a permanent exhibition space, two temporary exhibition galleries, a learning hub, discovery centre, cafe and museum shop, will open in 2028, with the civic whare \u2013 a public meeting house.<\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n

Ayla Yeoman<\/a> is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based in Tauranga. She holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in communications, politics and international relations from the University of Auckland, and has been a journalist since 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It operated from a pop-up venue on Devonport Rd before reopening its revamped space in November. The project…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[23562,74,15408,1228,442,498,499,500,1568,501,22048,18983,156,1229,78,1132,3234,111,139,69,8213,1233,79092,202,1515,1227,17156,9717,1530],"class_list":["post-595314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-23562","tag-after","tag-almost","tag-art","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-construction","tag-design","tag-disruption","tag-draws","tag-entertainment","tag-gallery","tag-in","tag-million","tag-months","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-recorded","tag-redevelopment","tag-revamped","tag-seven","tag-surge","tag-tauranga","tag-toi","tag-visitors","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}