Written by Rebecca Lancashire Thursday, 24 February 2011 21:25

The Christchurch Art Gallery Home Of New Zealand's Most Significant Art Collection Survived The Earthquake ~  Much Of The City's Cultural Center Did Not

Christchurch, NZ (The Age).- Many of Christchurch's 1870s stone facades - its Victorian Gothic Revival architecture - were no match for a second earthquake after they were weakened by the quake of September 2010. Following the second earthquake of January 22nd 2011, in the central city area known as the cultural precinct, images of the city's icon, Christchurch Cathedral, its tower toppled to the ground, have been seen around the world. Christchurch is a city that values the arts, with its own symphony orchestra and the Southern Opera company. The city's biennial arts festival is scheduled for August.

One institution reported to have suffered heavy damage is the Arts Centre. An elaborate historic complex within the cultural precinct, it is registered as a category one site with the Historic Places Trust and regarded as one of the world's finest examples of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture.It features studios, galleries, theatres and cinemas, including the historic den of Nobel prize-winning scientist Ernest Rutherford. The centre escaped complete collapse in 2010 due to previous earthquake-strengthening work, and a $NZ25 million ($A18.57 million) repair project has been under way since December.

The centre is also home to the city's professional theatre company, the Court Theatre. Arts Centre director Ken Franklin could not be contacted since the earthquake. The fate of the Canterbury Museum, another 1870s stone building within the cultural precinct, is unclear. The museum's website states that as a result of Tuesday's earthquake it is closed until further notice. The museum has in its collection more than 2.1 million items, including an extensive Antarctic collection. Earthquake-strengthening was also carried out on the building in the 1990s.




Of the city's major cultural institutions, the Christchurch Art Gallery, a three-level contemporary building with a huge facade of curved glass and metal, is unscathed. The gallery, built in 2003, houses one of the country's most significant art collections in nine exhibition spaces, including a vast collection of works by New Zealand artists amongst the more than 6,200 art works in its collection. Designed by Buchan Group architects, based in Melbourne and Christchurch, the building incorporates rigorous seismic design. is being used as the headquarters for the Civil Defence team, as it was after the 2010 earthquake.

Although currently closed, the gallery's collection is still available to browse on-line. From early european painting to contemporary New Zealand video works, the collection covers every field of artistic endeavor. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://christchurchartgallery.org.nz, and also the Red Cross disaster appeal at http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_display.php .

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