News
An Exhibition of Original Paintings by Val Raymond
The Ngati Tuwharetoa Marae Historic Church Collection
“Te Ara Wairua o Ngati Tuwharetoa”
12th of June to the 20th of July.
Artist Val Raymond has dedicated more than 3 years researching and painting 10 historical marae based churches within the central plateau, that have significant connections for the people of Ngati Tuwharetoa and the wider community. The unique partnership of artist and iwi has helped to preserve history and heritage and will now bring these hidden treasures into public view. The resulting exhibition: Te Ara Wairua o Ngati Tuwharetoa and paintings from The Millenium exhibition 2000, “A celebration of Feather and Fibre” will be open to the public in the Tuwharetoa Gallery at Taupo Museum from the 12th of June to the 20th of July.
The collection in oils and watercolours displays the mastery for which Val Raymond is renowned. Although Val was born in Christchurch and attended the Canterbury University School of Fine Art for her Diploma in Fine Arts, she has lived in the Central Plateau for most of her life.
Val says it was a pleasure and a great privilege to record the beauty and grace of these ten historical buildings. She felt humbled in their presence and was very reluctant to leave each location. She sees these timeless churches as a tribute to Ngati Tuwharetoa, a link between past and present. The churches were all built in the late 19th early 20th centuries and feature a variety of styles in native wood.
Both these major collections will be gifted to the Ngati Tuwharetoa people, to preserve the paintings’ future for generations to come.
Taupo Museum is open daily from 10am – 4:30pm
MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Popular exhibits lead to increased visitors at Taupo Museum
Taupo Museum has been bustling with visitors over the summer due to the popular All Black photographic exhibit “Hard on the Heels”.
The ‘Hard on the Heels’ exhibition featuring dozens of extraordinary photos of the All Blacks taken by Peter Bush was a huge drawcard leading to a record number of 4062 visitors through the doors in January.
Hundreds of people also came especially to see the Bledisloe Cup during its three days on display in Taupo. Daily visitor numbers peaked with 354 people through the doors of the museum on 27 January, beating a previous peak of 287 visitors in December 2010.
The welcome spike in numbers is due to a combination of factors says Taupo Museum manager Karen Williams. “We’ve had excellent publicity from the Taupo Times and More FM. The exhibition has been a trip down memory lane for rugby fans giving people a chance to see their All Black rugby heroes of old in action” she said. “The mix of very wet days and very hot days has also worked in our favour with the museum providing a welcome place to escape from the weather.”
“The museum acknowledges the generous financial support of exhibition sponsors The Taupo Times, DPA Accountants, Eat Catering, Penny Homes, More FM, M21 Meats and Senjo Securities Ltd.”
Karen noted the visitor mix during January revealed a neat four-way split – with approximately 1000 locals visiting the museum, 1000 children, 1000 overseas visitors and a 1000 other visitors from other places in New Zealand.
The museum is free to local district residents and ratepayers and free to all children and is very reasonably priced for out of town visitors at $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens.
RUGBY ROYALTY IN TAUPO
Rugby legends were out in force in Taupo on Friday night in support of 80 year old rugby photographer Peter Bush. Sir Colin Meads, Keith Quinn, Graeme Henry all spoke at the ‘Hard on the Heels' exhibition opening at the Taupo Museum on its opening night.
Peter Bush took his first All Black photos in 1949 and 300 of his images were selected for Exhibitions Services touring exhibition. A 40 minute DVD adds the stories behind the photos and is part of the exhibition.
Keith Quinn and Colin Mead both remembered Peter Bush paying his own way when following the All Blacks on tour overseas.
He was the quiet and unpretentious photographer who often captured the classic moment said Keith Quinn. "The Keith Murdoch incident was just one of many, that only Peter captured the moment on film" he said.
From glass plates to digital, Peter's cameras over the decades are also on show.
This travelling exhibition is on at Taupo Museum until 8 February. Taupo is the only central North Island venue to host the exhibition so the Museum is expecting people from as far away as Napier, Te Kuiti and Rotorua and Taihape.
The exhibition is sponsored by Canon but was brought to the Taupo Museum by local sponsors DPA Accountants, Penny Homes, Senjo Security, M 21 Meats, Eat Catering, 93.6 MoreFM and Taupo Times. It is part of Taupo's Rugby World Cup build up.
An auction selling rugby memorabilia and other prizes such as dinner at Huka Lodge raised $6000 for Junior King Country Rugby.
More FM featured Keith Quinn, Graeme Henry and Peter Bush on their local sports show - broadcasting out of the Museum. Wonderful anecdotes and tales were told on the opening day of the exhibition. Hard on the Heels is set for a dream run in Taupo.
