What's On At The Dowse

What's On At The Dowse

Events...

Little Sparks Tues 11th January, 1-2pm | $5 per person | 4yr olds & caregivers
A hands-on session for creatively-minded four year olds. Little Sparks meet once a month to chat about what they have seen at The Dowse - and then get busy creating their own inspired artworks.
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL T 04 570 6500 | E bookings@dowse.org.nz

Summer Safari Mon 27 January, 9am-2pm |Adults $21, Under 14 FREE
Join us in a safari-style bus trip to Wellington Zoo!

What to expect: With a Zoo guide we will meet some of the real life animals from our Menagerie exhibition, listen in on the tiger talk and take part in a very special feeding of the Capuchin monkeys. After lunch we will a get a chance to explore the rest of the zoo.

What to bring: Bring your own snacks and packed lunch, water, sun-screen and come prepared for exploring in comfortable clothes and shoes.

The nitty-gritty: Limited numbers so get in quick! Kids up to 14 free, but adult cost for Zoo entry of $21.00 applies. To make this a safe and fun experience we ask that there is at least 1 adult per every 3 children. Bookings will be confirmed when adults pay for their Zoo entry at The Dowse reception, by Monday 20 January 2014. Meet at 9am in front of The Dowse for a 9.15am departure. The bus will be return to The Dowse around 2pm.
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL T 04 570 6500 E dowsebookings@huttcity.govt.nz

Turrets, Taniwhas, and Triangles Wed 29 & Thurs 30 Jan, 10am-12pm |FREE
Families, join the education team on the beach by Petone Settlers Museum for sand-sculpting fun. Bring your morning tea and remember to slip, slop & slap!

Check our website for cancellation due to weather

Let's Go Fly Your Kite Fri 31 Jan, 10am-11am & 11:30am-12:30pm |Gold coin donation
Join us to make your own kite to fly.
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL T 04 5706500 E bookings@dowse.org.nz

Opening Exhibitions...

Malcolm Harrison: The Family 25 January - 15 June 2014 | FREE
Textile artist and self-confessed magpie Malcolm Harrison created this family of colourful characters. From travellers to circus buskers these fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters march to the beat of their own drum. The Dowse warmly invites you to come to know The Family this summer. Image Attached Malcolm Harrison, The Family - Bank ,Thomas, Lennox(1983-1987) Collection of the Dowse Art Museum

Ongoing Exhibitions...

Peter Robinson: Tribe Subtribe 14 December - 30 March 2014 | FREE
Acclaimed New Zealand sculptor Peter Robinson presents a major new installation for The Dowse. Audiences are invited to take part to create a series of colourful felt sticks in the gallery, bringing together conceptual minimalism with craft traditions.

Following on from Robinson's major piece for the Auckland Triennial, If You Were to Work Here: The Mood at the Museum, this follow up exhibition continues the artist's recent interest in bringing together strangers to co-create with him. On opening day the gallery floor will be filled with a carpet of hundreds of small felt rings, while a stack of coloured aluminium rods stand by. Visitors are encouraged to select a rod and feed rings onto it, creating a unique felt stick.

Robinson has always been simultaneously a materialist and a conceptualist, weaving complex ideas into the most spectacular manipulations of fabric, felt, wax or plastic. He is the artist who wrangled six tonnes of expanded polystyrene foam so it wound its way through an entire gallery, the glare of light coming off so much white it was as blinding as its title, Snow Ball Blind Time, suggested. Image Attached Peter Robinson, Tribe Subtribe (studio test), 2013. Image: Sam Hartnett

Man Made 19 October 2013 - 16 February 2014 | FREE | Media Release
Man Made features the work of twelve contemporary male artists who work with textiles. The twelve Man Made artists are: Gavin Hurley, Richard Orjis, Jay Hutchinson, Ronnie van Hout, Hemi Macgregor, Rohan Wealleans, Elliot Collins, Zac Langdon-Pole, Finn Ferrier, Andrew Barber, Warwick Freeman and David Brown. Man Made investigates the breaking of gender stereotypes and considers the range of subject matter male artists employ with a medium that is more often associated with women. While textiles are also more traditionally associated with craft, the majority of these artists do not necessarily only use textiles and are considered 'fine artists'.

Menagerie: Exotic Animals in Aotearoa 23 November 2013 - 23 February 2014 | FREE
A light-hearted look at how and why exotic animals, usually found in zoos, are represented in New Zealand art. What do these animals mean to us, what do they make us think of? Menagerie is an exhibition for the whole family that features works by artists Dick Frizzell, Lisa Walker, Chris Heaphy, Reuben Paterson, Séraphine Pick, Jane Dodd, The Crystal Chain Gang, Bronwynne Cornish, Gina Matchitt, Janet Green and Diane Quin.

The Dowse Banners 14 December 2013 - 30 march 2014 | FREE
In 1981 The Dowse turned 10, and to celebrate, 10 artists were commissioned to each create a banner, by Jim Barr, Director at the time. The artists selected already had a relationship with the gallery and several had used the motif of banners or flags in their work. At that time, the artists were established or just beginning to make a name for themselves, but over 30 years later they represent some of the most iconic names in New Zealand art. Many of the artists were invited painters who had not worked with fabric before.

Closing Exhibitions...

The Cabinets: Peeking Into The Collection 21 September 2013 - 19 January 2014 | FREE
Here's a chance to see behind the scenes of The Dowse - without going back of house. We are currently renovating in the collection store, and needed to temporarily relocate some of the cabinets and the precious artworks they so carefully house. So we thought we'd share them by exhibiting some in the gallery. The Cabinets features some of The Dowse's most iconic ceramics, from Len Castle and Barry Brickell to more recent artists Jim Cooper, Ann Verdcourt and Madeleine Child. There are also significant works from The Blumhardt Foundation's Collection, on long term loan to The Dowse, including works by Japanese master craftsmen Shoji Hamada and Takeichi Kawai.

As Many Structures As I Can: Works from the Chartwell Collection 12 October 2013 - 26 January 2014 | FREE
As Many Structures As I Can celebrates the remarkable collection of the Chartwell Trust in an exhibition exploring the systems and structures utlised by artists to generate their work.

From painting, sculpture, performance and photography, the artworks are built on their own internal logic. The title of this show is taken from a video by Richard Maloy which begins with a perfect set of building blocks made of butter that are reworked endlessly until the material collapses into a formless abstraction of texture and colour. Other artists in the exhibition: Fiona Amundsen, Steve Carr, Bill Culbert, Selina Foote, Gavin Hipkins, Sara Hughes, Simon Ingram, Emily Kame Jngwarreye, Richard Killeen, Laresa Kosloff, Gabriella Mangano, Silvana Mangano, Michael Parekowhai and Justene Williams

The Chartwell Collection is a collection of contemporary art from New Zealand and Australia that has been held on long term loan at the Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, New Zealand, since 1997. Read more about the Chartwell Trust.

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