March 06, 2014
Lotto funds for Hundertwasser gallery
The prospect of a new museum for Maori art is a step closer with the announcement the Hundertwasser Art Centre in Whangarei is to get $2 million from the Lottery Grants Board’s Significant Projects Fund.
One of the conditions the late Austrian artist Friedrich Hundertwasser made in offering the city the chance to put his work on permanent display was that the centre had to include space for Maori and indigenous art.
The grant will put pressure on Whangarei District Council to release the $8 million set aside for the project.
Some members of the new council tried to kill the project last month, but a majority voted to defer a decision into a telephone opinion poll indicated what the Whangarei community wants.
Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne says the Hundertwasser Centre will draw visitors to Northland as well as give residents a place they can be proud of.
He also announced a grant of $5.75 million to the Waitangi National Trust Board to build a new national museum at Waitangi to house its collection of objects, artefacts and documents relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.
Another $1.67 million was been awarded to Onuku Rununga Incorporated Society to complete the redevelopment of Onuku Marae on the Akaroa Harbour, which was the first place in the South Island where Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed by Ngai Tahu chiefs.
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