Shaken

After checking up on friends and some family in Christchurch and finding they were shaken but ok, we wondered about the new Christchurch Art Gallery. All that glass. Sounds like not only is it ok but that the building was so secure it has become HQ for organising the civil response to the disaster. Artist Roger Boyce has this art meets the real world pic on his blog Roger Boyce Paints showing his exhibition space being used by the earthquake emergency management team. 

News is trickling in of damage to studios and galleries. The Arts Centre has been damaged and is currently closed and we heard the Brooke Gifford Gallery which was in one of those old brick buildings is closed until further notice. Neil Dawson’s hall came through fine as did Tony De Latour’s studio and the Physics Room, but as an artist regular on Artbash posted, “We learn many things like - do not keep cans of paint on a feeble shelf over your workbench.”

There is also news that the building the Jonathan Smart Gallery was about to move into has been so badly damaged that it was demolished yesterday. We haven’t caught up with the Brooke Gifford Gallery yet. Christchurch, thinking of you.

Image: Roger Boyce’s exhibition The Illustrated History of Painting at the Christchurch Art Gallery transformed into earthquake emergency management response center.