Pātaka Museum of Arts and Cultures, often stylised as Pātaka Art + Museum, is a municipal

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

and

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

Porirua City Porirua, ( mi, Pari-ā-Rua) a city in the Wellington Region of the North Island of New Zealand, is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. The name 'Porirua' is a corruption of 'Pari-rua', meaning "the tide swee ...

, New Zealand. Te Marae o Te Umu Kai o Hau is the name of the building where Pātaka is located and opened in 1998. It also houses the Porirua City Library, a privately run cafe and a Japanese garden.

History

In 1980 the Porirua Museum opened and by 1997 had outgrown its

Takapūwāhia Takapūwāhia, also known as Porirua Pa, was originally built on one of the oldest settlements in the Porirua basin called Te Urukahika, a small hamlet located on the western shore of Porirua harbour in the lower (southern) North Island of New Zea ...

site. At the same time, the Mana Community Arts Council wished to expand their community art gallery located on the corner of Parumoana and Norrie Streets. The two organisations amalgamated moving into the newly renovated and expanded site in 1998. Bob Cater co-founded Page 90 which became Pātaka and was awarded the

Queen's Service Medal The Queen's Service Medal is a medal awarded by the government of New Zealand to recognise and reward volunteer service to the community and also public service in elected or appointed public office. It was established in 1975 and is related to ...

, and

Darcy Nicholas Darcy John Nicholas (born 1945) is a New Zealand artist, writer and art administrator. Art administration career Nicholas opened his own art gallery in Lower Hutt in 1975. In 1981 he became director of the Wellington Arts Centre. In 1986 Nicho ...

was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The Queen's Service Order, established by royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to the Crown or similar services within the pu ...

, in part for their roles in establishing the museum. The name Pātaka is a

Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...

word meaning 'storehouse'. The purpose of Pātaka is to show contemporary

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

arts. It also shows other New Zealand arts.

Facilities

Architecture + was the architectural firm that designed Pātaka. They transformed a 1970s office building that already housed the Porirua City Library, Whitireia's performance space and Page 90 gallery. Pātaka has galleries with changing exhibitions. The Bottle Creek Gallery is for community and local artists. Other galleries are the Front Gallery, West Gallery, the Maude & Miller Gallery and the Daylight Gallery. The Daylight Gallery has a semi-permanent exhibition about

Ngāti Toa Rangatira Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

, the local Māori

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

(nation or tribe) called ''Whiti Te Rā!'' Pātaka Art + Museum has an atrium the full length of the building that also connects the Porirua Library, reception, shop, cafē, performing arts studio, and meeting and events rooms and an outside courtyard with a Japanese garden.

Awards

Pātaka has won a number of awards: * NZIA

Resene Resene Paints LTD is a New Zealand paint and building materials manufacturer and retailer. Divisions Resene Paints LTD & Resene Paints Australia LTD Resene produces paint for New Zealand & Australian conditions from manufacturing facilities in ...

Branch Award 1999 *

Dulux Dulux is an internationally available brand of architectural paint originated from the United Kingdom. The brand name Dulux has been used by both Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and DuPont since 1931 and was one of the first alkyd-based pa ...

Colour Award 1999 *

Carter Holt Harvey __NOTOC__ Carter Holt Harvey Limited is a privately-owned New Zealand-based company controlled by Rank Group Limited, the corporate vehicle of the country's richest man, Graeme Hart. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, the company has three main div ...

award commendation 1999 *

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

School of Architecture 25th Anniversary Alumni Supreme Award & Educational, Cultural and Community Award * NZIA Resene Regional Award 2000

References

External links

* {{Authority control New Zealand art Art museums and galleries in New Zealand Porirua