Former Director of the NZ Portrait Gallery receives Tempus Award

Woodford House principal Julie Peterson (left), NZ Portrait Gallery former director Avenal McKinnon and Woodford House Old Girls' Association president Mary Sherratt. Photo / Supplied

A significant contribution to raising awareness of and accessibility to New Zealand art has seen former Woodford House student Avenal McKinnon, MNZM, presented with the Tempus Award 2018.

McKinnon became Director of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in 2005 at a time when the trust had no physical exhibition space, which proved to be a huge challenge.

She found the members of the team to be immensely supportive, as were portrait galleries around the world, and all work undertaken and programmes achieved were the result of willing, collaborative effort.

"I think we all dream of somehow making the world a better place. In my position at the Portrait Gallery, I wanted to make art, through portraiture and visual biography, freely available and accessible to all, to help bring vividly to life those who have shaped our nation. For it is in understanding our past that we can look to the future," McKinnon said.

Today the New Zealand Portrait Gallery enjoys a long-term lease in Shed 11 on the Wellington waterfront and holds an important collection of New Zealand art for everyone to enjoy.

The Tempus Award, now in its fifth year, recognises outstanding achievement by an Old Girl in her field.

Previous recipients have included New Zealand actress, Dame Kate Harcourt and co-founder of Trade Aid, Vi Cottrell.

Presented by the Woodford House Old Girls' Association, McKinnon was recognised with the award at a special event held in her honour earlier this month.

The event was attended by Old Girls, including friends from Avenal's time at Woodford House, members of the Old Girls' Association, Head Prefect Georgia Trent and principal Julie Peterson.

McKinnon was also joined by husband John, daughter Sophie and son Alex, along with his wife Rhiannon and their three children Madeleine, Elizabeth and Percy.

Invited guests enjoyed the opportunity to hear about Ms McKinnon's time at Woodford House which she attended from 1962 to 1966, one of only 14 girls who travelled from the South Island by boat.

Art has always been an absorbing interest to McKinnon, but she was initially inspired by the work of Frances Hodgkins through the painting titled La Première Communion, which hung in the Woodford House dining room, when she was a boarder.

"At our assigned tables, we would move around one place at every meal, and I always loved coming close to this beautiful work and actually sitting beside it on various occasions."

In a touching tribute to her time at Woodford House, McKinnon presented a very special painting to the school.

The artwork by Frances Hodgkins reimagines the original oil painting The Tyrant by Marie Seymour Lucas in watercolour.