Art Outdoors
Auckland's temperate coastal climate makes the great outdoors accessible all year round. Art and landscape combine at various gardens and events across the region, providing art lovers plenty of opportunities to enjoy art in the outdoors.
Waiheke Island, located 35 minutes by ferry from downtown Auckland, is a haven for artists, with more than 40 artists' studios dotted across the island. On the eastern side of the island lies Connells Bay Sculpture Park, located on a 60 acre coastal property. Owners John and Jo Gow established the park with the vision of uniting art and nature by planting sweeps of native trees and creating special places for commissioned site-specific New Zealand sculptures. The collection includes pieces made in concrete, bronze, stone, steel, aluminium and wood - some up to eight metres high. Accommodation is available onsite in a 100-year-old, self-contained guest cottage, located metres from the beach and set amongst native trees.
On the other side of the island, Te Whau Garden is comprised of three different types of gardens - the Rainforest, the Wetlands and the House Garden. It features a blend of natives and perennials, with sub-tropical rainforest covering 26 acres. The Wetland is a backdrop for an outside sculpture gallery representing some of New Zealand's finest sculptors.
Outdoor sculptures are showcased at the biennial Sculpture on the Gulf, an exhibition created by the locals of Waiheke to interweave art and landscape and embrace the coastal scenery of the island. The exhibition takes place on a two-kilometre-long public walkway at Matiatia Harbour, and is next scheduled to take place from 26 January - 11 February 2007.
In Auckland City, The Auckland Domain, home of the stately Auckland War Memorial Museum, also features the Domain Sculpture Walk. The project was artist-initiated during 2004/2005, with eight works from leading New Zealand artists now on display throughout the domain.
North of the city, Zealandia Sculpture Garden sits on a hill at Mahurangi. Created by artist Terry Stringer, the site comprises a gallery building made in the New Zealand shed idiom, surrounded by farmland. Where there was once a cattle yard is now a walled maze garden and outdoor space which forms a theatre for the showcasing of the sculptures. Zealandia Sculpture Garden is open daily from late October through to April each year.
In Manukau City, the Pou Kapua is on display at Telstaclear Pacific Events Centre. It is a significant Maori and Pacitic Island arts show-piece carved from a large kauri tree. It weighs more than thirty tonnes, and at seventy feet high is the largest totem of its type in the world.
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