Official opening date revealed for Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery redevelopment

The construction tent around the gallery's original building was removed earlier this month. Photo / Bevan Conley

After 10 years of redevelopment, Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery has an official reopening date.

Gallery director Andrew Clifford told Whanganui District Council operations and performance committee this week “with all fingers and toes crossed”, November 9 would be the date everybody would be welcomed.

“We are working with iwi, the Sarjeant Gallery Trust and with other stakeholders to work through what that opening programme will look like and what shape it will take,” he said.

“It will extend over a period of time, not just that day, with a wide variety of community-focused events that we hope will encourage people from all avenues of our community to come and enjoy the facilities at that time.

“We can’t wait.”

The construction tent around the original gallery was removed earlier this month and project director Gaye Batty said the focus was shifting from construction to re-entry.

She said gallery staff would take up residence in the building at the end of June.

“We have also started work on the landscape,” she said.

“The programme has been set and project teams are working together to sequence and co-ordinate the shared work areas to ensure everything is ready for the opening events.”

Vehicle access to the neighbouring Davis Library will be restricted for the next four to five months so the landscaping work can take place.

Batty’s report to the committee said completion of all interior building works for the gallery’s new Pātaka o Sir Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa wing, the heritage building and the link building between them was on track to be completed at the end of this month.

The redeveloped gallery now covers more than 4500sq m and will feature 10 exhibition spaces, a family room, a reading room and library, retail space, a cafe, and publicly accessible event and meeting rooms.

The mid-range forecasted cost of the project now stands at $70.7 million - up from the $69.75m reported in April - with the highest cost risk at $71.9m.

Batty’s report said “key drivers of the creep” in cost were heritage plaster remediation works, additional ventilation systems for the six heritage skylights and trade cost fluctuations and escalations due to market conditions.

The project had entered the final phase of construction and most costs were now known, it said.

Whanganui District Council funding for the project currently stands at $17.38m - 24.6 per cent of the total redevelopment.

Council property and open spaces general manager Sarah O’Hagan said the council was actively engaged with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment about any funding opportunities “coming up through central government”.

“We haven’t got anything more but we are still asking,” she said.

Last month, Sarjeant Gallery Trust chairwoman Nicola Williams said $2.5m had been raised for the trust’s endowment fund.

“You [council] will keep the doors open and pay the salaries - basic operating costs - but the trust will deliver all the nice-to-haves,” Williams said.

O’Hagan said the endowment fund was the trust’s focus but it, along with the council, was exploring other fundraising opportunities for the capital build.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.