Save Carnegie Centre campaign launches in Dannevirke

Dannevirke's Carnegie Centre will be the subject of a public meeting on Thursday at the Fountain Theatre. Photo/File

The campaign to preserve Dannevirke's Carnegie Centre and return it to public use kicks off at a public meeting on Thursday evening.

The meeting will be held in the Fountain Theatre, Ward St, and will be addressed by writer Mickey Smith who has had a lifelong association with Carnegie libraries and Gisborne/Hawke's Bay Branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects chairwoman Hilary Finn.

The opportunity to recruit these speakers has come about because the Dannevirke meeting is being held during the week-long New Zealand-wide annual Festival of Architecture which is also being celebrated in Napier.

The meeting will begin at 5.30pm with meet and mingle with hot drinks and snacks served.

At 6pm Tararua mayor Tracey Collis will open the meeting with a welcome to all and will introduce the guest speakers.

Smith will introduce the audience to Carnegie libraries and discuss their international and national significance, to highlight the plight of the Dannevirke library which has been designated for demolition.

Smith grew up checking out books from a grand Carnegie Library in her hometown of Duluth, Minnesota.

Eventually, the collection outgrew the space, but the Carnegie building was saved and repurposed.

Smith and her friends continued to utilise the building as teenagers, when it housed a public clinic in the basement.

On moving to New Zealand in 2012, Smith was surprised to find 23 Carnegie libraries had been erected throughout the South Pacific. Over the course of three years, she documented the 16 remaining buildings in Australia, Fiji and New Zealand.

The result of this work appears in her new publication, As You Will: Carnegie Libraries of the South Pacific.

As a conceptual artist and photographer, Smith's practice has been engaged with a long-standing inquiry into libraries, books and archives and in particular the social significance of their physical existence or disappearance.

She has received awards from Americans for the Arts, Creative New Zealand, CEC ArtsLink and McKnight Foundation.

Following their addresses there will be an opportunity to speak to the guest speakers.

Friends of Carnegie committee member Barbara Ferguson who was behind the campaign to save the Carnegie Centre said support for the group had been huge and there had been great feedback.

"Interest in the meeting has been strong and we are expecting a good turnout because of the support we have been receiving," said Ferguson.