Gallery to launch campaign for new premises

April 2006

NZ Portrait Gallery to launch campaign for new premises

The Director of the National Portrait Gallery in London will lecture at the close of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery’s current exhibition as the NZ gallery launches a fund raising drive to increase its activities .

The lecture by Sandy Nairne on April 18 will also mark the beginning of the NZ Portrait Gallery’s campaign to raise funds for development of its exhibitions and new premises.

NZ Portrait Gallery director, Avenal McKinnon, says that Mr Nairne’s visit is a wonderful coup for the Gallery.

“Sandy Nairne has amazing experience in the art world,” she says.

“Apart from his current role, he has also been Director of Programmes at the Tate Modern and has been very involved with developing new multimedia and digital exhibition formats.”

Sandy Nairne’s lecture will also mark a new phase for the New Zealand Portrait Gallery which is planning to boost its profile with an increased exhibition programme and a proposal to move to a more permanent exhibition space.

“The Adam Award exhibition shows that the public appetite for portraiture is strong,” Avenal McKinnon says.

The Adam Exhibition has so far seen more than XXXX visitors in its first three weeks.

“This is fantastic for an institution which has very limited sources of funding and must rely heavily on public goodwill,” Mrs McKinnon says.

“By the time that the show closes at Shed 11 on April 118 we expect XXXX people will have seen it, and we expect many more when a selection of works travels to Auckland as part of our commitment to supporting portraiture all over the country.”

Sandy Nairne’s lecture, 150 years in the Life of The National Portrait Gallery, will take place at Shed 11 at 6pm on April 18.

The New Zealand Portrait Gallery operates as a Trust. Among its aims are to maintain a multimedia gallery for the portrayal of the people of New Zealand; to provide opportunities to increase public interest in New Zealand’s identity through portraiture; and to encourage artists working in any medium to portray the people of New Zealand.

ENDS

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