PRESS RELEASE – 23 March 2010


New Lease of Life for Former Art Gallery

The Sargood Bequest and descendants of the Sargood family are happy a compromise has been reached which preserves a significant portion of the former art gallery at Logan Park.

This not only preserves an historic building of the great International Exhibition era, but will also preserve the philanthropic legacy of Sir Percy and Lady Sargood. The Sargood’s bought and donated the building to the city in 1926 after the International South Seas Exhibition. They continued to support the Art Gallery financially and donated a number of fine works from their private collection. This support continues to this day through the Sargood Bequest. The Sargood Bequest, a charitable trust was established by Sir Percy in 1939. They continue to fund acquisitions, specialist curator equipment and assisted in relocation of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery from Logan Park to the Octagon. The Sargood Bequest is also active in supporting Otago sporting and cultural organisations.

John Blennerhassett, trustee of the Sargood Bequest and great grandson of Sir Percy comments.

“This is a good common sense outcome whereby all parties benefit. Heritage values are preserved; the remaining galleries and façade of the building will be returned to their original condition. New Zealand Cricket gets an international cricket pitch for Dunedin. Other sporting users of Logan Park and the public of Dunedin will enjoy another grand venue for functions, weddings and the like.”

“We support the agreement and conditions New Zealand Historic Places Trust and Dunedin City Council are working thru that will guarantee the restoration of the building over the next five years.”

The Sargood’s and no doubt the people of Dunedin would enjoy to have the history of the building, the South Seas Exhibition and Sargood involvement recorded for generations to come on the walls of one of the gallery spaces. The extent of the exhibition in 1925 which over 3,000,000 people visited is difficult to appreciate in this day and age. The Hocken library holds photos in their collection that bring the scale of the exhibition to life.

The Sargood’s would like the building named “The Sargood Gallery” in recognition of the support of the Sargood family to the arts in Dunedin for well over 100 years.

ENDS

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