HAC PROJECT GETS FURTHER $1.8 mil BOOST!

A $1.8 million grant for the Hundertwasser project sends a strong community message to supporters as fundraising now sits just shy of the $13 million mark. This latest grant has come from Foundation North, formally known as the ASB Community Trust, and brings the funds for the Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Maori Art Gallery to almost 80% of the total needed to start building the Art Centre.

This Foundation North “Places” fund gives priority to projects that are community driven and have wide community support, satisfy an identified and well-defined community need and will create widespread and significant community interaction.

Helen Whittaker, head of the HAC fundraising team, said today, “It is great to have another major entity alongside central government who has assessed and positively endorsed the project”.

She added “It is the community aspect of the project that is now driving funders like Foundation North to want to help us.  “Community” is a very important word out there and that is what the HAC project is now all about”.

The $1.8 million grant is a significant contribution to a project that will provide Whangarei and Northland with two world class art galleries.

The Art Centre will contain the first dedicated and curated contemporary Maori art gallery in New Zealand which will showcase in particular artists from Te Tai Tokerau.

Alongside the Wairau Maori Art Gallery, the Hundertwasser Gallery will contain over 50 original pieces on loan from Vienna.  When this gallery is completed, there will be only 2 places in the world where Hundertwasser’s art can be viewed publicly, Vienna and Whangarei.