More than 20 years after initial inception, the Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery project is about to come to life at the hands of a 75-strong team of committed volunteers. But with six weeks to go until the June 30 deadline, when the group need to have reached its $16.25 million target, it is very much a case of ‘so close, yet so far.’

Austrian born Friedensreich Hundertwasser was one of the most celebrated artists to come out of Europe in the 20th Century. He was acclaimed for his work with colour and mosaics, and became especially famed for his conversions of industrial buildings into works of art in Europe and Japan. In New Zealand he is well known for the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa – the leading tourist attraction in Kawakawa, and the most photographed toilets in the country. Hundertwasser spent most of the last 30 years of his life living and working in Northland and became a New Zealand citizen.

In 1993, Hundertwasser was invited by the Mayor of Whangarei to design an art centre for the city. He chose the former Northland Harbour Board building in the Town Basin, and declared his intention that the building would be an art centre to include a gallery of his own works as well as a gallery dedicated to Maori art.

The Wairau Māori Art Gallery will exhibit nationally and internationally acclaimed art produced by Māori artists.  Major galleries such as Te Papa Tongarewa and the Auckland Art Gallery – Toi o Tamaki have pledged their support for the Wairau Māori Art Gallery and works will be available from their extensive Māori collection. It will be the only permanent and curated national gallery dedicated to contemporary Māori Art. The gallery is supported by Toi Iho, the registered and globally recognised trademark of quality and authenticity of Māori art and artists.

It’s estimated that the Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery will attract over 140,000 paying visitors a year. In terms of benefits to the region, economic development agency, Northland Inc, estimates the Centre will bring $22 million a year in net economic benefit to the Northland Region.  68 Full time equivalent jobs are expected over the two-year construction period, an ongoing 10 full time jobs in the art centre once completed, and a further ongoing 21 full time jobs in the adjoining café.

Fundraising team member Clive Jackson said he is passionate about this project because he sees the Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery as a vehicle to keep Whangarei’s young people in the region.

The story of the art centre over the past 20 years is a complex one, with the project being picked up and dropped several times. In 2014 it was picked up again by Prosper Northland Trust who later collaborated with the Whangarei Art Museum Trust, the Hundertwasser Non-Profit Foundation in Vienna, and the Wairau Maori Advisory Panel to form a project management team. Project Director Andrew Garratt, described the group as a team of very professional volunteers, “It is an amazing team and it is all voluntary – no one needs motivating.”

Made up of local business people, accountants, lawyers, teachers, artists, and media professionals, Andrew said the Project Team of 20 members are collectively working 250 hours per week on the art centre project, on top of their daily work commitments. He said, “We’re all learning. Our fundraisers have never fundraised before, but now they’re getting calls from other groups around the country asking how they’ve done it. We have the attitude ‘think how we can – not why we can’t.’ By thinking ‘how we can,’ we can solve monumental problems.  If we thought ‘why we can’t’ we would have stopped three years ago.”

Now a fully community-led project, the completed art centre is scheduled to open by mid 2020. Before the project progresses though, the group needs to secure the last 10% of their fundraising target of $16.25 million by 30 June 2017.

The group have become well-versed in preparing funding applications, securing funding from government, Foundation North, Lotteries, Northland Regional Council, local trusts, the community and Pub Charity, in addition to funds initially pledged by the Whangarei District Council.  They have run a number of local fundraising events, and are currently running an online crowdfunding campaign on Boosted, offering a donor recognition scheme via their website, and selling limited edition art prints donated to the project by leading New Zealand artists Dick Frizzell, Billy Apple, Emily Karaka, Tony Ogle and Michael Smither.  Star billing in this line up is Hundertwasser himself with a reproduction of an original work called Resurrection of Architecture 1982. This has been produced in the form of limited addition fine art screen print produced especially to raise funds for the project.  It is titled “HAC Building Stone.”

Taking the project to Auckland this week, the group are hosting HART, a pop up variety concert featuring Tina Cross ONZM, Kawiti Waetford, Sophie Sparrow, Juan Kim, Andrew McLennan, Vann Dizon, Dan Upritchard, and Resonate. The concert will be held at The Raye Freedman Art Centre, Epsom Girls Grammar School on Thursday 25 May.

Andrew Garratt said the team feel very optimistic about reaching the $16.25m by June 30^th and that the “scene is set” for success, however that success relies on the community keeping up the momentum and continuing to help make it happen.

Follow this link (or ph: 0508-484-253) for tickets to HART in Auckland this Thursday, 25 May.