Aigantighe Art Gallery announces the reopening of its historic Aigantighe House following major accessibility and safety upgrades, and with the launch of a new exhibition and commission.

The historic building was closed to the public for around eight months for the upgrade and it now features a new lift, and new railings throughout key areas, providing enhanced visitor safety and increased access across multiple levels.

“The addition of the lift significantly improves access to Aigantighe House and supports the gallery’s commitment to ensuring heritage spaces are usable and welcoming for a wide range of visitors,” says Cara Fitzgerald, Director, Aigantighe Art Gallery.

The reopening coincides with Aqua Nostra: The Unruly Commons, an exhibition presenting nearly 80 works from the Gallery’s collection, displayed throughout Heritage House.

The exhibition explores artists’ engagement with water, coastlines, and the natural world, from European Romanticism and post-impressionism to New Zealand regionalist and modernist movements.

Aigantighe Exhibitions Curator Izzy Hillman says Aqua Nostra positions water as both material and metaphor and is deeply entangled with social and ecological systems.

“By tracing how artists have navigated, resisted, and responded to water across time, the exhibition invites visitors to consider their own relationship to this element.”

The exhibition features work by New Zealand artists including Duncan Darroch, Archibald Nicoll, Ann Robinson, Sydney Thompson, Grace Butler, Louise Henderson, Toss Woollaston, Malcolm Warr, and Tony Kuepfer, alongside international painters such as John Loxton, Henry John Yeend King, and Lexden Pocock.

Also opening is Aigantighe Chandelier, a permanent site-specific work commissioned by the Aigantighe Art Gallery, and financially supported by the Betty Jordan Bequest, and Friends of the Aigantighe to mark the Friends’ 50th anniversary in 2026. This chandelier has been installed within the stairwell of the Aigantighe House. The artists also contributed to the cost of the piece.

“The chandelier draws on the history and architecture of Aigantighe House, responding to its form and sense of place while creating a contemporary dialogue within the heritage interior,” say the artists of Crystal Chain Gang, Jim and Leanne Dennison of Martinborough.

Exhibition dates:

Aqua Nostra: The Unruly Commons
Saturday 13 December 2025 until Sunday 1 March 2026
Aigantighe House, Timaru.

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