Free Lecture Series - First Speaker: Luit Bieringa

As part of Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History's 50th anniversary celebrations, the museum is offering a Free Lecture Series every second Sunday afternoon, starting 1st September, at 2pm.

Luit Bieringa is the first speaker in the 5-part series, covering each of the five decades that the museum has been open to the public.

1970s

1/9 The 1970s – Luit Bieringa, former Aratoi Director, Director National Art Gallery (1979-89)

1980s

15/9 The 1980s – Barbara Roydhouse, Chair of Aratoi Regional Trust

1990s

29/9 The 1990s – Bob Francis QSO MBE, former Mayor of Masterton (1986-2007)

2000s

13/10 The 2000s – Richard Arlidge, former Aratoi Director

2010s

27/10 The 2010s – Dame Robin White, Honorary Patron of Aratoi

All invited. Free entry.

Bieringa considers a museum to be an education hub, conservation centre, and a "memory of mankind" all in one.

The 50th anniversary events embodies his remark, with a free exhibition of about 100 items from its growing collection, the free lecture series, and a free education programme. A fully illustrated book, “Fifty Years in Fifty Objects” will be launched on its 'real' birthday, 11 October.

The doors to the institution officially opened on 11 October 1969. Currently, the museum hosts between 25-30 exhibitions annually, delivers a free education programme to thousands of students, runs public programmes and a live performance series, and operates a museum shop. Donations to the Aratoi collection, the only public collection of art works in the Wairarapa, have tripled since 2016.

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