Rarely seen pieces feature in Waikato Museum exhibition

A number of rarely viewed art pieces will be revealed when the exhibition ‘Friendly: The Friends respond to collection works’ opens at Waikato Museum this evening.

The exhibition features some of the artwork from the museum collections – many of which have been held in storage and not seen in over 20 years.

The Friends of the Waikato Museum – an altruistic organisation whose members are committed to supporting the museum with collections, activities, programmes, openings and community knowledge – accepted an invitation to ‘respond to works from the collection in any way they wish’, and have provided commentaries by way of a personal response to each work.

Waikato Museum director Kate Vusoniwailala said it is nice to be able to profile and acknowledge The Friends of the Waikato Museum through the ‘Friendly’ exhibition.

“The ongoing voluntary patronage and assistance of The Friends has enabled the museum to grow and develop,” she said.

“The organisation has been just what their name implies and their friendly support has helped to raise funds for the acquisition of artefacts and art works to gift to our museum. These gifts are added to the museum collections for the benefit of all those who visit.”

To date 129 items in the museum collections have been gifted from the Friends of the Waikato Museum. These are valued at more than $357,000.

‘Friendly: The Friends respond to collection works’ will be on display at Waikato Museum from 26 March until 10 July.