Who owns the christchurch arts centre

Skip to main navigation Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to search Skip to content. Use current location. See all locations. Admin Admin Admin, collapsed. Main navigation What's On. Open search form. Enter search query Clear Text. Saved Searches Advanced Search. Join About About, collapsed About. What's On. Ernest Rutherford, for example, an illustrious student of Canterbury College remembered by a permanent display in "Rutherford's Den" at the Arts Centre.

In the Canterbury College buildings were taken over by the Arts Centre of Christchurch - the site remains a hive of activity, and the buildings a focal point for the arts and community service activity. Given that they were built in a piecemeal fashion over many years, the final result of the buildings programme shows remarkable consistency. Until the second decade of the twentieth century the buildings on the site had made up a rather inharmonious medley of styles and materials.

The buildings designed specifically for the College are particularly significant in that one thinks of them as Gothic even though there is scarcely a pointed arch, the quintessential feature of medieval Gothic, to be found anywhere. The buildings are a kind of a historical Gothic. In selecting Gothic as the architectural style for Canterbury College, the ideals of the Canterbury Association Colonists were being maintained.

Its models, Oxford and Cambridge, had played an important part in the Gothic Revival movement from the second quarter of the nineteenth century.

Gothic was seen as reflecting historical, national English , Christian, and social beliefs. As far as was possible within financial constraints the early College buildings were designed in accordance with Ecclesiological principles. By the twentieth century, however, architectural theory had changed somewhat and some of the later buildings do not adhere strictly to such principles.

The Great Hall is probably the best interpretation by B. Mountfort of Collegiate Gothic architecture, and as a group, the buildings are a particularly fine example of High Victorian architecture. The precinctial character of this complex of consistent buildings is outstanding. The entire block with Canterbury Museum and Christ's College form a conservation area with a series of superb streetscapes. They shifted to Australia two years later and settled in Melbourne.

Here Armson was articled to the architectural and civil engineering firm of Purchas and Swyer for a period of six years. He was trained in architecture, engineering and surveying. Armson returned to New Zealand in during the Otago gold rushes. He was appointed architectural draughtsman in the Provincial Engineer's Department and was soon promoted to Assistant Architect.

Made redundant in , Armson practised in Dunedin before superiving construction of St Luke's Church at Oamaru in Armson moved to Hokitika in and practised on his own account, designing a wide variety of buildings.

He moved to Christchurch in and it was here that he prospered as an architect. From until his death, Armson was unrivalled as a commercial architect in Christchurch. He was also known for his professionalism and in was one of the founding members of the Canterbury Association of Architects. The practice founded by Armson in continued as Collins Architects Limited.

Thomas Cane was born in Brighton, Sussex. For many years he worked for Sir Gilbert Scott, the celebrated architect of London.

He held this position until the abolition of the provinces in , making his name as a Christchurch architect. Cane also achieved recognition as a landscape artist. After serving his articles with Armson, John James Collins bought the practice after the former's death in and subsequently took Richard Dacre Harman into partnership four years later. Between the two buildings was a swimming pool that was built in The site of the pool is where the modern canopy is located today. The building was created with an emphasis on providing large, well-lit and accessible interior spaces at the insistence of Dr W.

Evans who replaced Professor Alexander Bickerton. The foundation stone was laid on 4 June and the building was opened by Sir Joseph Ward on 23 February with Bickerton present at the occasion.

The building was constructed from Halswell basalt walls , with Oamaru stone facings , Hoon Hay basalt pillars , and Timaru basalt in steps. The Library was originally opened in Designed by Collins and Harman, it was very much influenced by architect Samuel Hurst Seager, who had previously designed to place such a building at the centre of the site to create two quadrangles bordered by cloisters.

The basement was full, and stacks were kept in forty different locations across the College buildings. Once described as an architectural gem but an impossible library, by the early s only one student in seventy could be seated. Used as a common room for the male students of Canterbury College, it was named after Clifford Collins. From , when the Student Union building was opened, the common room was put to a variety of uses, including as the offices of student magazine Canta in the s.

More recently, Free Theatre used the ground floor lecture theatre immediately before the earthquakes. When viewed from the Botanic Gardens, one can see how the right hand bay of windows steps up, indicating the location of a lecture theatre. There was one lecture theatre on the ground floor and one on the first floor. From to , the basement of the Physics building was home to the National Radiation Laboratory and its research into treatment for cancer and tuberculosis.

From this building, the Physics Department also contributed to the war effort in the South Pacific by conducting successful research into the best time of day for radio transmissions. The English Department moved into the vacant building and remained there until before also relocating to Ilam. She then joined a touring theatre company and travelled to England to pursue her theatrical studies. Marsh returned to Christchurch when her mother became terminally ill and by the end of the s she had published seven more novels her first was written in England and had become an international celebrity.

The theatre seated just over people. It not only taught skills to student actors who looked to a future on the stage, it was also an important social centre and its use of up-to-date technology was exciting for early audiences. In , the University of Canterbury named the theatre at its new Ilam campus after her. Every person, whatever the level of his academic ability, whether he be rich or poor, whether he live in town or country, has the right, as a citizen, to a free education of a kind for which he is best suited and to the fullest extent of his powers.

Beeby enrolled at Canterbury College in and was awarded with honorary doctorates from the University of Canterbury, University of Otago, and Victoria University of Wellington. James Shelley was the new chair of education at Canterbury College. Shortly after arriving in Christchurch around he established the Canterbury College Drama Society.

Encouraged from her early years by her mother, painter Rosa Dixon, Spencer Bower pursued a serious artistic career throughout her life. They were artistically progressive, critical of the limitations of art institutions and predominantly women. It was during that period, when she saw woman artists and their interests overlooked, that Olivia began to frame in her mind the idea of an award, initially intended to support women artists only but now open to promising male artists and sculptors.

In her later years, she gave serious consideration to these intentions, which resulted in her setting up a Charitable Foundation, the final details for which were only finalised five days before she died, in early July Under her Will, Olivia left all her art works to the Perpetual Guardian Foundation, and these have been gradually realised by the Trustees to form a capital fund.

In addition, a substantial body of archival work represented by some to image pages has been established permanently at the Christchurch Art Gallery in Christchurch, which material will be available to future art students and art historians. Image courtesy of the University of Canterbury. Thank you to the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation for providing permission to use some of the above information. Rita Angus, a pioneer of modern painting, was regarded as a leading figure in twentieth century New Zealand art.

Rita studied at the Canterbury College School of Art from to where she was trained in life drawing, still life and landscape painting. She was also a well-known traveller and pacifist. Text and Image courtesy of the University of Canterbury.

Opened in , this building was a result of extensive remodelling of the residence of a local merchant, established alongside the College in After World War II, the building underwent major extensions as a result of the dramatic increase in returned servicemen. From to , he taught philosophy at Canterbury College, stressing the need for research as well as teaching to be performed within a university.

During his time at the College he wrote and published The Open Society and its Enemies, comparing democracies founded on rational debate with authoritarian government. He went on to a position at the London School of Economics, and became a sought-after lecturer and speaker, attending conferences and debates around the world.

He was knighted in and today is widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of twentieth century science. The Memorial Window was originally installed in , 20 years after its design was completed by Martin Travers, a teacher at the royal College of Art in London.

It depicts the service of humanity by action and thought and includes possibly the most portraits found in any 20th century English stained-glass window. She was forced to abandon her medical studies however, when upon arrival, she found the school had no facilities for training women. She returned to New Zealand and enrolled at Canterbury College in It was here that she learned how important it was for Classics departments to have physical examples of Greek pottery as well as photographs.

The first three pieces she bought were the beginnings of what became the Logie Collection. When she married James Logie, Canterbury College Registrar in , he helped establish an annual grant for the purchase of Greek pottery, which Marion was given charge of.

Her acquisitions were both wise and shrewd. When she supported a University of Melbourne expedition to Cyprus in , her donation was rewarded with an allocation of Mycenaean finds from the site that greatly enhanced the growing collection. When her husband died in , Marion gifted the collection to the University of Canterbury, stipulating that it be called the James Logie Memorial Collection and that it be used primarily for teaching. Sir Ian obtained a double degree in Science and Engineering at the University of Canterbury during the s.

His extraordinary career in astrophysics increased our understanding of the nature of planetary magnetospheres, comets, interplanetary space, the behaviour of interstellar gas and the origin of cosmic rays. He was the first New Zealander since Lord Rutherford to be a Fellow of the Royal Society and, after being named New Zealander of the year in , was knighted in Dame Margaret Mahy is one of New Zealand's most celebrated children's authors, having written more than titles that have been translated into 15 different languages.

She produced over picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories. Many of her works won medals and awards and have been translated into a host of languages around the world. Beatrice Tinsley was one of the most creative and significant theoreticians in modern astronomy. In , she left Texas for a one year fellowship at the Lick Observatory of the University of California, before gaining an assistant professorship at Yale University.

She became Professor of Astronomy at Yale in , the same year she was diagnosed with melanoma. She continued to publish until shortly before her death in , producing over scientific papers in her short 14 year academic career. She received a number of honours and accolades for her work.

In the American Astronomical Society established the Beatrice M Tinsley Prize for outstanding creative contributions to astronomy or astrophysics and the University of Texas created a visiting professorship in astronomy in her honour.

The immense importance of her work was finally recognised in New Zealand in when the New Zealand Geographic Board named a mountain in her honour. Now UC Science precinct's impressive timber framed building, completed in , is also named for her.

Founded in by Miss Lorraine Peters, the Southern Ballet School occupied parts of the Engineering building from until the February earthquake, at which time there were pupils attending classes. The school has an outstanding reputation with many students achieving distinction in their careers as dancers, performing in New Zealand and internationally to principal status. Discipline and respect for self and others are essential elements in their training philosophy as is the fostering of an active participation in and support of the arts.

The Court operated two auditoria at The Arts Centre. Warren and Mahoney undertook an extensive master planning exercise, negotiating issues of long-term rebuild and progressive repopulation of the site over time, and provided guidance on the challenge of updating 19 th century buildings to accommodate the needs of the 21 st century and beyond. The iconic collection of heritage buildings occupy a city block and are a unique part of the cultural and architectural heritage of the city.

If there are any benefits resulting from the devastating earthquakes of and , one might be that the subsequent repairs to the Arts Centre created an opportunity to reassess the relationship of the buildings and their urban context.