Record numbers to sculpture show

Around 360,000 visitors passed through the Auckland Botanic Gardens’ gates this summer to see the third biennial Sculpture in the Gardens exhibition.

The exhibition, which closed last Sunday, drew a record number of people from across the Auckland region and visitors from around New Zealand and abroad.

Auckland Botanic Gardens’ visitor services manager Micheline Newton says they are still confirming figures but expect the final numbers to be around 20,000 more than when the exhibition was last held in 2009/10.

“We have had a steady flow of people through – both regulars and first-time visitors,” she says. “In the last 11 days alone, more than 35,000 made the most of the sunshine and final days of the show.”

At the event’s closing celebrations, the winner of the People’s Choice Award, a $5,000 award sponsored by the Friends of the Auckland Botanic Gardens, was announced.

Winner Jamie Pickernell (from Rotorua) said he was delighted to be a part of the show for a second time and show his work to such a varied audience.

Pickernell’s sculpture ‘Bird Lady’, a galvanized steel bird with human-like features sitting on a park bench, was voted the people’s choice by visitors during the exhibition. It will remain on site and join the gardens’ permanent sculpture collection as part of the Friends’ annual ‘birthday gift’ bequest to the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

The winners of the exhibition’s photography and writing competition were also announced and will be posted on the Auckland Botanic Gardens website this week.