Director Janet Bayly speaks at the opening of Toi Mahara gallery in Waikanae October 2023 Photo: Mark Amery
Toi Mahara gallery director Janet Bayly offers the whakatauki: ‘ahakoa he iti he pounamu’, when she speaks of the Kāpiti Coast’s regional Gallery in Waikanae. “The gift of something small but precious.”
Small, precious and also shiny new, the opening of an Athfield Architects designed purpose-built building for Toi Mahara has been 20 years in the making. A picturesque one hour train ride north of Wellington, the public gallery has opened its doors with a weekend of celebrations October 28 to 29.
The Athfield Architects designed new Mahara Gallery in Waikanae readies for opening 2023 Photo: supplied
The design has reinstated the gallery’s original high timber ceilings, embedded artwork by iwi and ceramic artists, and provided views of the Hemi Matenga hills and Kāpiti Island.
The Athfield Architects designed new Mahara Gallery in Waikanae readies for opening 2023 Photo: supplied
The gallery programme features local and national exhibitions of significance, but is firmly based on the former on opening. Toi Mahara enjoys a close relationship with artists across the Kāpiti Coast, represented by an annual review show of new local work Arotake Toi, and also by Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho - Treasures of Kāpiti, an exhibition of local treasures drawn from public and private collections.
There are other key local connections: Toi Mahara works closely with neighbouring marae Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, and a lively acclaimed regional Māori cultural scene. Another opening exhibition Whiriwhiria features Māori weavers connected to Ōtaki, and associated with the weaving programme at Te Wānanga o Raukawa and the town’s Toi Matarau Gallery.
Representing the region’s strong Pākehā heritage, the new gallery will be the home of the Field Collection, a group of 44 historical works, 24 of them paintings by Frances Hodgkins (1869–1947), considered by many to be New Zealand’s most significant expatriate artist. Hodgkins spent time in the district on the Field farm, with her sister’s family.
The new Mahara Gallery offers views of both Kapiti Island and the hills of Hemi Matenga behind Photo: supplied
The gallery has also long been looking to the next generation. Exhibition Wai Ora - Water Life showcases the work of school children, the outcome of a long partnership with Waikanae’s Ngā Manu Nature Reserve.
Director Janet Bayly has been with the project through planning, fundraising and construction. She started as director back in 2006, and it's all taken by her, the Toi Mahara trust board, a very small crew and a legion of volunteers with plenty of stamina. Toi Mahara is now receiving increased council funding for its operational costs, but remains run independently of the Kapiti Coast District Council. The charitable trust led the fundraising for two-thirds of the $6.5 million cost themselves.
The gallery was first opened by a group of local artists in 1995 and has grown steadily ever since.
“We are creating a new cultural destination,” says Bayly, “Linking established arts venues and trails between Wellington, Pātaka, the Dowse, Whirinaki Whare Taonga, Te Manawa and the new Sarjeant Gallery, Percy Thomson Gallery, Len Lye Centre, Govett Brewster and Puke Ariki.”
