AUCKLAND ART GALLERY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2393, 24 February 1915, Page 8

AUCKLAND ART GALLERY

FURTHER EXTENSIONS APPROVED Plana have been prepared by Mr. Bush, Auckland City .Engineer, for necessary extensions to the Auokland Art Gallery. These have been approved by the Mayor of Auckland (Mr. C. J. Parr), and after being endorsed by the Library Committee tenders will be called. A loan of £4000 was last year authorised by' the ratepayers for this work. The new gallery, the Mayor .states, will be a handsome building. Alternative proposals were made for the building of a. wing furtherup the Co-, burg -Street frontage, and for an addition extending from the Mackelvie Gallery back into Albert Park. The latter .plan is the one which has been approved, since it'is believed that it will make the building more compact. Despite the fact that the accommodation in the Auckland Art-; Gallery was almost trebled as a result of moving the municipal offices into the new Town Hall, ■the. Art ■ Gallery Committee is hard pressed for space. The Mackelvie trustees' are spending about £500 or £600 per year on fine' pictures,' and other additions to the. gallery make an extension : absolutely ■ necessary. .It is interesting ■to note, the Mayor adds, that since the last extension the attendance has more than-doubled. The Auckland Gallery is now admitted .to be easily the finest in New Zealand, and in many respects it-comperes favourably with-the larger galleries of Sydney and Melbourne. In fact, connoisseurs coneider : that : the Mackelvie collection, as representing modern - English art, lis finer than any collection of its kind in Australasia.