12 July 2011

N E W S R E L E A S E

Lottery Grant Raises the Roof for the Len Lye Centre

The Len Lye Centre has secured another half million dollar investment with a grant from the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board’s Environment and Heritage Committee.

The Len Lye Centre will be a new home for the care, research, preservation and engagement with the art and ideas of pioneer New Zealand-born modernist filmmaker and kinetic artist Len Lye (1901-1980).

Lance Girling-Butcher, New Plymouth District Councillor and Chair of the Len Lye Committee, says the Lottery grant is tagged specifically to building construction costs so it will go directly towards making the Patterson Associates’ designed building a reality in New Plymouth.

“We are extremely grateful to the Lottery Grants Board for their valued contribution to this unique and nationally significant project,” says Mr Girling-Butcher.

The Len Lye Collection and Archive has been cared for and exhibited by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery since it was gifted by the artist to the Len Lye Foundation ‘for the people of New Zealand’ in 1980.

“The building itself will showcase Taranaki’s role as a leader in engineering innovation and workmanship nationally and globally in its highly innovative use of stainless steel in the building’s structural exterior,” says Mr Girling-Butcher.

New Plymouth District Council Chief Executive Barbara McKerrow says the project partners are delighted with the successful funding grant.

“The importance and value of this project for New Plymouth District and indeed for all of New Zealand has again been recognised,” she says.

The Len Lye Centre project is a collaboration between the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand’s foremost contemporary art museum, its owner and operator NPDC, and the Len Lye Foundation.

Gallery Director Rhana Devenport says the Lottery grant is absolutely critical to the success of the Len Lye Centre project.

“The combined facility of the Govett-Brewster and Len Lye Centre aims to offer audiences from New Plymouth, New Zealand and the world an outstanding opportunity to engage with the inspirational art and ideas of Len Lye while continuing to offer exceptional encounters with contemporary art,” says Ms Devenport.

The momentum for the Centre accelerated with the recent announcement that it received support of $4 million over two years from the Government’s Regional Museums Policy for Capital Construction Costs. This was announced at the Govett-Brewster on 25 June 2011 by Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, the Hon. Christopher Finlayson. This support builds on significant and early support of $1m from the TSB Community Trust in 2010.

If the remainder of the fundraising is successful, construction of the new building, adjacent and connected to the existing Govett-Brewster, is planned to start in late 2012 and be completed late 2014.

As part of its regular series of Len Lye exhibitions, the Govett-Brewster will present New Zealand’s most comprehensive Len Lye exhibition to date, Len Lye: All Souls Carnival, from 10 September to 27 November 2011. For the first time, Len Lye will inhabit all spaces of the Govett-Brewster. The exhibition, curated by Curator Len Lye Tyler Cann, will include many of Lye’s most memorable works, as well as important new reconstructions and restorations as yet unseen. Len Lye: All Souls Carnival is included in the Rugby World Cup 2011 REAL New Zealand Festival.
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