The Dowse Art Museum in Wellington, Dunedin’s Otago Museum and Nelson’s Suter Gallery each have a new fund dedicated to purchasing contemporary craft objects.
The three institutions have entered into a four year agreement with the newly established Blumhardt Fund. The fund will annually match up to $25 000 spent per institution on each gallery’s acquisition of New Zealand made contemporary craft pieces, meaning about $600,000 spent on craft art work over the four year period.
The funding is to help New Zealand artists whose opportunities have declined because of Covid-19 and to provide access to more publicly showcased New Zealand art.
"This funding will allow us to extend our collection across a greater diversity of disciplines and approaches. This will make an incredible difference to our collection over the coming years and will help grow opportunities for the studio craft sector in Aotearoa,” says Karl Chitham, Director at the Dowse.
Julie Catchpole, Director of The Suter Art Gallery Nelson, says “we will be able to be more ambitious with the acquisition of a broader range of makers and media”.
The aim of the Blumhardt Foundation (named after ceramist and arts educator Dame Doreen Blumhardt ONZ, DNZM, CBE) is to advance the best craftspeople of Aotearoa.
By Courtenay Scott-Hill