Forrester Gallery, Mahika Kai Mahika Toi, opens

Published on 20 April 2026

A dawn ceremony marked the blessing by Te Rūnanga o Moeraki and the granting of a name the Forrester Gallery building extension this morning.

Led by Justin Tipa, Chair of both Te Rūnanga o Moeraki and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, and joined by invited guests who have been closely involved in the extension project, each room of the building was blessed before speeches and an early morning tea.

Mahika Kai Mahika Toi, “The work of food, the work of art”, refers to the intergenerational practices of sustenance and creativity – drawing a parallel between caring for land, water, food systems, animal and plant life, and the nurturing of artistic, cultural and creative knowledge.

The gallery rooms named by Kare Tipa of Moeraki have also all been named after native bird-life which are either found, or once were found locally. A list of the names, and the rooms they relate to, is attached separately.

The gallery has been closed for the last seven weeks to allow for fit-out of the new extension, which has doubled the space in the gallery, created a climate-controlled collection store, a purpose-built education space, and installed a lift which provides access to all floors of the building for the first time in the gallery’s 43 year history.

The first exhibition in Whēkau, the new main gallery space, is Paemanu: Kārakaraka Toi, a collaborative exhibition by Paemanu Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts. The exhibition emerged from a journey along Waitaki awa. First shown at The Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in Meanjin Brisbane at The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, it returns home.

The gallery’s new shows also features Karanga i te Hoa - Phone a Friend an exhibition which displays collaborative work between local Waitaki artists and their peers elsewhere in New Zealand.

The extension was majority funded by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, who provided $6.5 million of funding, with the remainder coming from grant funding, fundraising by the Friends of the Forrester Gallery, bequests, donations and sponsorship.

Mahika Kai Mahika Toi also features installed artwork from Ross Hemera (Ngai Tahu) which features on the connecting atrium windows, and the west facing wall of locally quarried Whitestone on the extension.

The Forrester Gallery, or Mahika Kai Mahika Toi, will open to the public at 1:30pm on Monday 20 April.

ENDS

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