Regional Wrap: Ashburton

The large town of Ashburton is to be found on the Canterbury Plains, halfway between Christchurch and Timaru. It is home to the increasingly celebrated Ashburton Art Gallery and Heritage Centre, whose director Shirin Khosraviani joined Culture 101 for our Regional Wrap. The gallery's new building opened 10 years ago and has now welcomed the local museum inside. In current museum exhibition, Bridging the Chasm the history of the Great Southern Railway is explored. How from 1874 it "opened Ashburton to the world" is explored (the railway stopped in 2002). Ashburton Art Gallery has become known for its strong local and national programming under Khosraviani. That includes the about-to-open Zonta Ashburton Women's Art Awards and exhibition, which is now in its ninth year and the only award of its type in the country. The premier award winner of that show gets their own exhibition the following year. This year that's 2024 winner Marie Porter. Her installation Recloaking considers the harvesting of pine trees on Te Pataka o Rakaihautu Banks Peninsula, and land that Porter cares for. These shows are on until 27 April. Another recent cultural highlight for Khosraviani has been the debut of a new kapa haka group,Te Whanau o Hakatere, at a Waitangi at the Pa event at Hakatere marae. Hakatere is the Maori name for the Ashburton River.