Left Bank Art Gallery

There had been an Arts Society in Greymouth since the 1940s; its early members included George Chippendale, Arthur Foster, David Graham, Allan Holcroft, and St Clair Sofield; they were joined by Toss Wollaston in 1949.[1] Art exhibitions were held in private rooms, hostels, the Copper Room of the Union Hotel, or on one occasion in an alleyway behind King's Hotel.[2] Even in the 1980s there was no permanent art gallery; Greymouth artist Rod Leonard recalled, "We hit a wall of opposition. People said we didn't need one."[2]

In 1981 Greymouth mayor Dr Barry Dallas called a meeting to establish a public gallery on the West Coast.[1] Acting chair of the Westland Community Arts Council Roger Ewer worked with Dallas to create an exhibition space on the vacant first floor of the Greymouth Borough Council Chambers on the corner of Puketahi and Tainui streets in central Greymouth.[3] The first exhibition in February 1982, opened by Toss Wollaston, was a "vast display" of West Coast painting and photography.[3] The West Coast Society of Arts (WCSA) was formed to run the gallery, using volunteers and government-funded Project Employment Programme workers.[3] The gallery held major biennial exhibitions of jade carving in 1984 and 1986, sponsored by Air New Zealand.[3] A donation of $15,000 from BP NZ Ltd allowed it to purchase three works by Olivia Spencer-Bower, the nucleus of its permanent collection.[4] In April 1987 the space in the Borough Council Chambers was taken over by the newly-formed Timberlands, and the Arts Society was homeless.[1][3]

The WCSA staged exhibitions in the Trowbridge Room, and ran the 1988 jade exhibition in the Ashley Motor Inn.[3] In September 1989 a new exhibition space with an "uninspiring exterior" was created at 29 Lord Street in Greymouth's industrial area.[1][3] The former National Library service centre was christened Shed 2.[5] Shed 2 exhibitions included a retrospective of Dusty Rhodes' work and Yvonne Rust's paintings. A public meeting attended by 130 created pressure on the Council to establish a permanent gallery.[1]

In 1988 the Bank of New Zealand vacated its 1926 brick and concrete corner building at 1 Tainui Street. It was purchased by local architect Gary Hopkinson in 1990, repainted, and refurbished.[3] The Grey District Council then purchased it for $100,000, including $55,000 from the Lottery Grants Board.[1][6] The WCSA then refurbished the building and added an entrance ramp. The interior consisted of three exhibition spaces with a 6 metre ceiling, and the upstairs (once the assistant bank manager's flat) was converted into environmentally-controlled storage.[1]

The Left Bank Art Gallery was officially opened by Greymouth mayor Ron Hibbs in its new premises on Saturday 23 May 1992, although the gallery had been open to the public since 20 March, and opened its first show – a collection of Anne Donovan watercolours – on 28 March.[7] The opening had been brought forward in the hope Barry Dallas, the mayor who had supported the WCSA and arranged the purchase of the building, could attend, but he had died a month earlier on 21 April.[8] To mark the opening two large pounamu boulders were installed, one inanga from the Arahura River and one kawakawa from Kaniere: four North Island carvers had worked on one, five South Islanders on the other.[9][8] They had been purchased by the 1990 Commission and blessed by the Governor General Sir Paul Reeves,[3] and were joined by a flax rope made by Auckland weaver Dante Bonica.[10]

Interior of main gallery

The first official exhibition was a selection of West Coast works by Allan Holcroft, mounted by his son Graham, and a smaller exhibition of works by Evelyn Hewlett in a side gallery.[11] In October 1992 the Left Bank exhibited a collection of painted and sculpted nudes, something that "wouldn't have been tolerated on the West Coast 20 years ago".[2] The gallery ran as both a civic exhibition space and a selling gallery, to fund its operation.[8] Its first director was Richard Arlidge (1992 – July 1994).[1]

The permanent collection, a mixture of purchases and donations, includes works by Toss Wollaston, Allan Holcroft, Olivia Spencer Bower, St Clair Sofield, Yvonne Rust, Peter Hughson, Russell Beck, 1990 lithographs from Muka Studio, and contemporary pounamu.[1]

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