HC iconHeritage and Culture

The Trustees aimed to maximise the potential to preserve the heritage of Canterbury and provide opportunities for people to participate in arts and cultural activities. The focus was on large-scale infrastructure and venues that allow continuity for participation in arts and culture. Sector collaboration was particularly valued. 

 

Projects funded

Canterbury Cultural Collections Recovery Centre

This project provides support to community cultural institutes displaced by the earthquakes. $1.5 million has been granted towards the Canterbury Cultural Collections Recovery Centre which will be located at the Air Force Museum in Wigram and available for the restoration, storage and rehabilitation of heritage and cultural collections.

Displaced cultural institutions, large or small, will be able to use the facilities free of charge at the Air Force Museum, opened in February 2013, for up to three years. Storage will be available for a further three years.

The is a new initiative and it will provide safe and secure premises for the region’s collections, some of which are nationally and internationally important. It also provides community groups more certainty in storing and rehabilitating collections, an opportunity for the cultural sector to work together on longer term recovery options.

The Centre will enable recovery work such as conservation and cataloguing with the help of local experts, and from Te Papa National Services in an appropriate climate controlled, secure environment. Already 20 organisations such as Lyttelton and Sumner museums have indicated an interest in participating in the project. 

Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society

$19,000 of funding to lease an alternative venue for rehearsal space for six months, due to the loss of home theatre. This fund was contributed by the Vodafone Foundation Canterbury Fund.

Canterbury Society Of Arts Charitable Trust (CSA)

$20,000 funding towards running an exciting new art space, helping solve the lack of art space in Christchurch following the quakes. This fund was contributed by the Vodafone Foundation Canterbury Fund.

Centre of Contemporary Art

$140,000 to complete the earthquake-related repairs needed so the gallery building can re-open to the public.

CHART aka The Christchurch Music Industry Trust

$75,000 Funding towards the fit out and lease on new music rehearsal space in central Christchurch. This funding was contributed by the UK Appeal Trust and the Vodafone Foundation Canterbury Fund. 

Christchurch School of Music

Up to $115,000 to establish a permanent administration hub near the classrooms used for teaching, following the demolition of its earthquake-damaged premises.

Citizen's War Memorial

$625,000 to the Church Property Trust towards the relocation of the Citizens' War Memorial to Cranmer Square. The Memorial is entered in the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Korero as a Category 1 historic place. There has been no public access to the memorial since the earthquake beause of it's proximity to the Cathedral. A further $200,000 was granted to the Christchurch City Council towards the new location site works.

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra

$150,005 was raised for the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra to go towards recovery and rebuild. A charity concert was held in Christchurch in October 2011 with Placido Domingo, one of the world's greatest living opera stars. A sell-out success, the concert raised over $300,000 for the Court Theatre and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. The gift was donated to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal and has been paid to the two recipients to assist in their recovery from the earthquakes and to help ensure these organisations are able to continue to provide opportunities for the public to participate in arts and cultural activities. 

CPIT Trust

$100,000 contribution towards the build of transitional studios and a gallery to provide amenities and outlets for Christchurch artists who lost work and exhibition space. This funding was contributed by the UK Appeal Trust and the Vodafone Foundation Canterbury Fund.

Lancaster Park Memorial Gates

$460,000 to the Christchurch City Council for the repair of earthquake damage to the Lancaster Park Memorial gates.

New Brighton Silver Band

$5,593 to repair of the band committee room where it has come apart from the main band hall as a result of recent earthquakes. This fund was contributed by the Vodafone Foundation Canterbury Fund.

New Zealand Historic Places Trust

$10,000 to develop a website utilising a range of media that documents the Christchurch High Street precinct prior to the February quake and preserves cultural heritage.

Rāpaki Marae

Up to $92,000 to repair the wharekai used for wider hapu events and gatherings, damaged as a result of the earthquakes. 

Riccarton House

$178,375 towards strengthening, repairs, and renovation.

“Earthquake repairs to the much loved Riccarton House in Kahu Road, Riccarton, have started this week,” said Charles Deans, Chairman of the Riccarton Bush Trust.

Riccarton House, a Category 1 registered historic building, was built in three stages from 1856 by the pioneering Deans family from Scotland, the first permanent settlers on the Canterbury Plains. It is now operated by the Trust as a living museum of colonial history, and as a restaurant and function centre.

The Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trustees appreciate the advice received from the Canterbury Earthquake Heritage Buildings Fund. 

Scottish Society of New Zealand

Up to $209,875 to repair its earthquake-damaged hall built 1884 in St Albans, for use by the Society and community groups.

Showbiz Christchurch

Up to $138,000 for additional works on its replacement building on St. Asaph Street so that it can continue to support grassroots performing arts groups in Christchurch. 

The Christchurch Arts Centre

$15.03 million of funding for the Christchurch Arts Centre towards the rebuild and restoration of the Clock Tower and the Great Hall.

The Arts Centre is world-renowned and an iconic building in Canterbury. The Clock Tower has a particularly significant heritage value as the first stone building in the original collection of buildings in the complex, which was the home of the University of Canterbury for nearly a century. Designed by pre-eminent Gothic Revival architect, Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort, the Clock Tower was completed in 1877. The Great Hall, which opened in 1882, has hosted many educational, social, cultural and recreational activities for the people of Christchurch.

The Arts Centre gift is being contributed by Fletcher Building ($4 million), the Aotearoa Foundation ($5 million), and the Canterbury Earthquake Heritage Building Fund ($5 million). John Griffin, President of Blue Ridge Capital is also supporting the project.

The Aotearoa Foundation is an affiliate of the Robertson Foundation, a private foundation in the United States begun by investor and philanthropist Julian Robertson. The Canterbury Earthquake Heritage Building Fund’s contribution for this project is being provided by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage in a matched funding arrangement with the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust.

A further grant of $283,000 towards the construction and replacement of the Observatory Tower Dome was made in 2019.

The Christchurch Arts Festival

The Trust gave $60,000 to the Christchurch Arts Festival to provide an outreach to children programme as part of the 2011 festival. Many extra-curricular activities were cancelled in Christchurch following the earthquakes, and many students had to work under very difficult conditions. This initiative provided thousands of school children with an opportunity to learn and participate in art and music programmes.

The festival ran from August to November 2011, and the programmes extended into schools were:

  • Four workshops in schools by the Wellington Ukelele Orchestra
  • Ten performances in ten primary and intermediate schools of the 'Rugby Fever' play
  • Six videopoem workshops for schools to compile images and a soundtrack of each student’s experience of the earthquake and aftermath – in association with Capital E’s Soundscape project and the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology
  • Four performances in schools of ‘Passing Wind’ with Linsey Pollak (making instruments out of everyday objects and performing with them)
  • Four workshop productions with Tanya Batt and her kamishibai story-telling programme 

The Court Theatre

The Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust provided funding of $2.65 million towards the Court Theatre’s fundraising campaign to build a new theatre in Addington, which opened on 7 December 2011.

Most performing arts venues have suffered damage in the February earthquake. The Court's home in the Arts Centre was red-stickered, along with most of the buildings in the Arts Centre campus.

The Court is an iconic theatre. It is New Zealand’s largest and most productive theatre company. This project ensures that The Court can continue to operate, opening the doors for over 150,000 Cantabrians and visitors who visit this theatre each year.

The Court runs a comprehensive programme each year which includes up to 22 plays, an education and training programme for children, youth and adults, as well as offering entertainment to children and families with holiday shows and a touring primary school show.

$150,005 of the funding was raised at a charity concert held in Christchurch in October 2011 with Placido Domingo, one of the world's greatest living opera stars. A sell-out success, the concert raised over $300,000 for the Court Theatre and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. The gift was donated to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal and has been paid to the two recipients to assist in their recovery from the earthquakes and to help ensure these organisations are able to continue to provide opportunities for the public to participate in arts and cultural activities.

The warehouse transformed into a theatre was recognised as one of the best buildings in post-earthquake Canterbury, receiving an award for public architecture at the 2012 Canterbury Architecture Awards. 

The Loons Theatre

$62,278 has been provided towards the repairs and fitout of the Loons Theatre venue in Lyttleton to assist the reopening of the theatre space and allow the continuity of its community and educational role.

The community of Lyttleton has been badly affected by the earthquakes. It was the closest town to the epicentre of the February 6.3 magnitude quake, and this was evident in the damage to buildings, homes and community spaces in the township.

The Loons Theatre venue is in the centre of Lyttleton and is a successful community space, multipurpose venue and bar, and the home of the Loons Circus Theatre Company (LCTC). The LCTC company was founded by theatre director Mike Friend and is well known for its popular festival shows such as ‘The Butler’ which toured Britain, and the popular ‘Berlin Burlesque’.

This project will allow the Loons Theatre to reopen to the community and be used once again as a rehearsal and performance space for the LCTC, community activities and visiting production companies. The project is underway and expected to be complete by June 2012. 

Thomas Edmonds Band Rotunda

$1,00,000 to the Christchurch City Council towards the restoration of the Thomas Edmonds and Rotunda, a Category 2 Historic Place, to enable use by the community.