Tamahere Arts Centre Opens Its Doors to the Wider Community

Tamahere has a significant new cultural asset that residents may not yet know is available to them.

The Tamahere Arts Centre, completed last year within the Sanderson Group’s Tamahere retirement village, is not simply a creative space for village residents. Its gallery also provides an opportunity to share work with and welcome the wider community by invitation, adding a new public arts dimension to Tamahere.

Designed by First Light Studio, the approximately 200-square-metre building on Tamahere Drive combines working studio, gathering space and gallery. Residents use it for painting, pottery, sewing, crochet and other creative pursuits, while exhibitions provide a connection beyond the village itself.

The architecture is particularly local. Seven large oak trees that once lined the driveway of the original property inspired the building’s seven substantial New Zealand oak trusses. Timber, brick and extensive natural light give the centre the character of a contemporary rural studio rather than an institutional facility.

The interior follows a simple journey - making, gathering and exhibiting. A working studio occupies one end, a gallery the other, with a central communal area and kitchenette opening towards landscaped gardens and a water feature.

Since opening, the gallery has proved particularly successful, hosting exhibitions and helping the village’s arts community grow. Importantly for Tamahere, it creates another place where the retirement village and the community around it can meet for events and exhibitions.

For a district beginning to think seriously about its cultural and community life as part of Vision Tamahere 75, the Arts Centre is worth knowing about. A beautifully designed creative facility already exists in our midst  and at least part of its purpose can be to reach beyond the village gates.

More information and photographs of the building can be found at Tamahere Arts Centre — First Light Studio.

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