Art Gallery's new vision
The Christchurch Art Gallery is to take a key leadership role in making Worcester Boulevard and the Cultural Precinct the most-visited cultural tourism site in New Zealand as part of its new vision for the future.
In developing a new direction for the Gallery, Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore and the Council's Strong Communities Portfolio Group have embraced the new vision which will guide the Gallery through what is called the Paradigm Shift.
"The Christchurch Art Gallery is ideally placed to take a key leadership role in the Cultural Precinct," says Stephen McArthur, the Council's General Manager of Community Services.
"The Gallery is an iconic building, is strategically located at the heart of the Cultural Precinct and through its programme invites visitors to live the Precinct's core value of expanding cultural horizons and enriching senses."
He says Cultural Precinct partners have welcomed the Gallery's new vision and support its key leadership role. "Promotion of the Cultural Precinct brand has far-reaching positive benefits for all those involved."
The Gallery's new vision also connects people — emotionally and intellectually — with art and celebrates the city's creative spirit. "We will expand the public's perception of art as we commit to new audiences by building a new, stimulating visitor experience and develop the brand," Mr McArthur says.
Throughout March, stakeholder meetings were held to get input and ideas to help create the dynamic new programme of exhibitions and events to reinforce the vision and deliver a new and enlarged audience.
"We received some extremely positive feedback from our key stakeholders on the vision and they shared a lot of ideas to help chart a direction for the Gallery over the next five years that focuses on our key audiences — the families/whanau of Christchurch, international visitors, domestic visitors, educational groups and special audiences," Mr McArthur says.
"This is an exciting time for the Gallery as we build on the first three years of success of our new facility and deliver the Paradigm Shift through a programme that has the Christchurch Art Gallery as a must-see on the itinerary of every visitor to the city, attracting more than 400,000 visitors a year by 2009-10."
The Gallery's Paradigm Shift implementation plan is expected to be completed by the end of June. |
