The Art Gallery and Museum provides fun and interactive learning programmes to suit school groups of all ages. School visits are tailored to meet the needs of students through facilitated discussions, hands-on activities and engagement with real experiences. Contact our educator to book your visit.
If you are wanting resources on particular topics for your kura do contact me. Between our archives, collections and resources we have a vast wealth of information about our local history and visual art.
All programmes have been tailored to suit
- Years 1- 3
- Year 4-6
- Year 7-10
Senior secondary programmes and resources are created to suit particular standards on request.
What's on this term
Bridging the Chasm - 150 years of Ashburton District Railway
Exhibition: Bridging the Chasm - 150 years of Ashburton District Railway
Curriculum Links: History, Technology
Dates: 13 November 2024 – 02 March 2025 (Term 4 Week 5 - Term 1 2025, Week 4)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Arriving in August 1874, the Great Southern Railway opened Ashburton to the world. The station became the arrival and departure platform for thousands of people coming and going over the next 128 years. It was, in its heyday, the central hub for our community. A railway trip was a day out at the beach or to the city. Soldiers left for war, many never to return. Immigrants arrived for a new life, a chance to start afresh, and the all-important goods and mail delivery via the railway was a lifeline to the wider world.
Tūhura | Explore How the railway transformed the way people moved around the district and enabled businesses to grow
Ako | Learn About the invention of the steam engine and how it revolutionised the world as we know it
Waihanga | Create A 3D card model of a steam train
Lost Luggage
Exhibition: Lost Luggage
Curriculum Links: Social Sciences, English
Dates: 04 December 2024 – 16 March 2025 (Term 4 Week 8 - Term 1 2025, Week 4)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Curious about the items that end up in Lost Luggage at a railway or bus station? This exhibition will display a selection of ordinary and not so ordinary items that people have lost, and explore what lost suitcases and bags have contained.
Tūhura | Explore The items that people have taken with them on journeys and how their loss may have impacted their lives
Ako | Learn How to create an impactful visual and written story
Waihanga | Create A model suitcase and a diary excerpt about the suitcase owner's journey
Zonta Ashburton Women's Art Awards 2025
Exhibition: ZAWAA25
Curriculum Links: Visual Art
Dates: 08 March - 27 April (Term 1 Week 6 - Term 1 Week 10)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
Now in its ninth year, this exhibition presented by the Zonta Club of Ashburton in partnership with Ashburton Art Gallery showcases the works of emerging and mid-career artists identifying as women based in Waitaha Canterbury. The award seeks to raise the status of women visual artists working in our region.
Waihanga | Create
Programmes can be tailored for ākonga to make connections with current topics they are learning about. Art making experiences can be aligned with relevant themes and/or mediums such as painting, printmaking or sculpture.
Marie Porter, Recloaking
Exhibition: Recloaking
Curriculum Links: Visual Art
Dates: 08 March - 27 April (Term 1 Week 6 - Term 1 Week 10)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
In Recloaking, ZAWAA 2024 Premier Award winner Marie Porter brings a sculptural consideration to the considerable undertaking of harvesting pine trees, ultimately intending to recloak 6.7 hectares of steep, rocky land in what will once again in time become mature native forest.
Waihanga | Create
While considering the impact of foresting, ākonga will create a sculpture that reflects the past, present and future environmental issues relating to human use of land.
Zonta Ashburton Women's Art Awards 2025 - Young Generation
Exhibition: ZAWAA25 - Young Generation
Curriculum Links: Visual Art
Dates: 08 March - 27 April (Term 1 Week 6 - Term 1 Week 10)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
ZAWAA's Young Generation Award is for women artists between the ages of sixteen and twenty. This prize acknowledges distinguished potential in art and aims to encourage further creative endeavours: an outcome well suited to Zonta—a global organisation of women working to elevate the status of women worldwide.
Waihanga | Create
Programmes can be tailored for ākonga to make connections with current topics they are learning about. Art making experiences can be aligned with relevant themes and/or mediums such as painting, printmaking or sculpture.
Land, Sea and Air
Exhibition: Land, Sea and Air
Curriculum Links: Social Sciences
Dates: 15 March - 25 May (Term 1 Week 7 - Term 2 Week 4)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
This exhibition explores the impacts of WWII on Ashburton by examining the experiences of several local men and women who served overseas in Land, Sea and Air-based forces. These experiences will be considered in relation to our perception of the conflict and the concept of remembrance.
Waihanga | Create
Using props, costumes and clues, ākonga will work together to decipher a series of codes to navigate their way through the war and back home. This game will give students the opportunity to work in teams and build an understanding of local wartime experiences.
Sharing Histories
Exhibition: Sharing Histories
Curriculum Links: Social Sciences
Dates: 22 March - 18 May (Term 1 Week 8 - Term 2 Week 3)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
Explore some of the treasured objects, archives and photographs that were generously donated to the Ashburton Museum and Historical Society in 2024. Sharing Histories showcases some of the most special and fascinating museum acquisitions of the previous year and explores why they are significant to Whakatere Ashburton.
The process of acquiring items for a museum collection has many steps and considerations. Have you ever wondered why museums collect the items that they do?
Waihanga | Create
Mock scenario: a chest of weird and wonderful items was found buried on a historic farm in the district. In groups, ākonga will work through the process of deciding whether to accept each object into the museum collection or not.
Mike Armstrong, Solo Exhibition
Exhibition: Mike Armstrong, Solo Exhibition
Curriculum Links: Visual Art
Dates: 11 May - 22 June (Term 2 Week 3 - Term 2 Week 8)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
Mike Armstrong’s work looks at political and environmental concerns. Using brightly-coloured oils that feature motifs such as human and humanoid figures, waves and architectural elements, he interrogates the pressing issues of our current era.
Waihanga | Create
Using oil pastels, ākonga will create vibrant artworks that use motifs and gestural mark making to express visual messages.
Marie Le Lievre, Inventory
Exhibition: Marie Le Lievre, Inventory
Curriculum Links: Visual Art
Dates: 11 May - 22 June (Term 2 Week 3 - Term 2 Week 8)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
This exhibition of work from highly regarded Lyttelton-based painter Marie le Lievre includes oil painting on canvas, drawing and a video work. Many of Marie’s works incorporate layers of colourful poured paint. Marie le Lievre’s work looks to personal histories, and life stages. The central large floor-based work is constructed from previous paintings and acts as a stocktake or inventory of past experience.
Waihanga | Create
Ākonga will experiment with a range of tools to apply paint in unconventional ways to make an expressive painting.
Enmeshed: Feminist Modes of Information Sharing
Exhibition: Enmeshed: Feminist Modes of Information Sharing
Curriculum Links: Visual Art
Dates: 11 May - 22 June (Term 2 Week 3 - Term 2 Week 8)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
The artists in Enmeshed have each reframed narratives, whether they be personal, cultural, or archival. Stories are rewritten from new perspectives, engaging with plurality, temporality, and embodiment – principals that reject a chronological or linear approach. Archival truths are questioned, and personal histories are entwined with fictions. Engaging with narratives born from archives, films, popular culture and personal histories, these artists retell their chosen stories from a feminist perspective.
Waihanga | Create
Working through a maze of thought-provoking challenges, ākonga will create a fun, responsive artwork.
Image: Claudia Kogachi Ghost, 2022. Acrylic on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2022.
Caught in the Moment - Guardian Photographs of 1975
Exhibition: Caught in the Moment - Guardian Photographs of 1975
Curriculum Links: Social Sciences | English | Visual Art
Dates: 31 May - 14 September (Term 2 Week 6 - Term 3 Week 10)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
Which moments in time did Guardian photographers capture around Whakatere Ashburton in 1975? A selection of images from this large collection of scanned photographic negatives will take us on a journey across all aspects of life in our district 50 years ago. Some images made the daily paper, but most did not and have never been seen before. Many photographs were taken to support a newsworthy story, some are a story in themselves!
Waihanga | Create
Has the content of our local newspaper changed over time? Compare and contrast the historic Ashburton Guardian stories and images with the newspaper we know today. In groups, ākonga will work together to take a photograph, conduct an interview and write a story for a class newspaper spread.
Nadia Curnow, Solo Exhibition
Exhibition: Nadia Curnow, Solo Exhibition
Curriculum Links: Visual Art
Dates: 14 June - 18 July (Term 2 Week 8 - Term 3 Week 1)
Time: 60-90 minutes
Tūhura | Explore
A recent series of abstract, painted canvasses from painter Nadia Curnow. Originally from Russia, Nadia Curnow is a Timaru-based artist who works predominantly in oils. Her abstract paintings allude to places, people and things, and sometimes incorporate elements of figuration.
Waihanga | Create
What is abstract art? How did it come to be? What was happening in the world at the time it started? Adapting the thinking behind abstract art, ākonga will create an intriguing artwork that challenges the viewer.
Permanent programmes
Domain Tales
A tour through the Domain using a map from 1937 and photos from our collection to compare and contrast the changes and develop our navigation skills.
Ng King Bros. Chinese Market Gardens
Learn about the Ng King Bros. Chinese Market Garden site and glimpse inside this amazing piece of history that gives insight into both Chinese maket gardening opertaions, as well as providing a social history of settlers who migrated to New Zealand, how they lived, contributed to and integrated into New Zealand society.
Whakatere Ashburton History
This scavenger hunt through the museum gives us a brief overview of the geography and history of the district
Living on the Land: Tākata Whenua o Hakatere
Learn about the area as it was used by tākata whenua and some food gathering and preparation techniques, including what we have learnt about the moa from findings in the area
Liquid Gold: Irrigation
Water has had a huge impact on all aspects of the Canterbury Plains Kā Pākihi-whakatekateka-a-Waitaha. Learn about and explore how water has moved throughout the district and enabled agriculture to grow.
Farming in the District
Farming has driven the development of the Whakatere Ashburton district. Learn about the factors that farmers faced when farming started and how problems were managed, overcome and created new opportunities.
Rocks and Fossils
Learn about the geology of the district through a collection of our rocks and fossils which are found in surprising places around us.
The Curious Mind
Looking at a collection of objects we will investigate why these were created and how these inventions have impacted our world and the future.
Survivor WW1 Game
The Survivor WW1 Game, provides a social, interactive, kinesthetic learning experience through experiential learning that “brings to life” the statistics, campaigns and artefacts of the NZ WW1 soldier.
The making of The Moon and Farmer McPhee
After reading the story, we will explore the process and experience of working with Margaret Mahy that David has shared with us to create this wonderful story. We see planning sketches, the original artwork as well as the book
Paint like a Doofus
Mark Braunias was a well-recognised contemporary painter, known for his energetic, irreverent and witty visual language. We are lucky to have the original preparatory paintings for the work Doofus a.k.a Assemble, Disassemble, Reassemble which was created on our foyer wall in 2017.
Exploring Drawing
Charcoal | Pencil | Pen + Wash
Taking inspiration from artworks in our collection such as Trees, Kakahu River by D. Waddington, explore a variety of drawing mediums and techniques.
Exploring Printmaking
Intaglio | Woodcut | Screenprint | Lithograph
A selection of prints from our collection, including Many Uncoded Factors by Michael Armstrong which showcase and highlight different types of printmaking. Start a printmaking journey making monoprints. This can lead on to printmaking workshops.
Experimenting with Paint
Oil | Acrylic | Watercolour | Mixed Media
Experiment with various painting approaches and media through looking at paintings from our collection like Rain Man Over Ashburton by Euan Macleod.
Tell us your interests
Do you have an idea for a learning programme at Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum?
Our educator can design a creative learning experience tailored to the needs and interests of your early childhood, primary and secondary school groups. Simply, contact us with your idea and we will work together to create a programme for your students.
Planning a visit
Materials:
All materials for workshops at the Gallery and Museum and at schools will be provided unless stated otherwise. School visits will require schools to provide a projector and full classroom space.
Ratios:
For visiting the Gallery and Museum, we recommend organising an adult to student ratio of:
– 1:5 for Years 0-3
– 1:8 for Years 4-8
– 1:15 for Years 9-10
– 1:30 for Years 11-13
If would be helpful if teachers are able to carry a class register in the case of an emergency.
Arriving at the Gallery and Museum:
The Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum is located on 327 West Street. The Gallery is situated on the first floor and the Museum is on the ground floor. If you are planning to arrive before 10:00am, please inform a Gallery and Museum staff member so they are able to let you into the building. The doors automatically open at 10:00am. For everyone’s enjoyment please ensure that students demonstrate respect to our other visitors.
Help us protect the exhibitions at the Gallery and Museum:
If possible we would advise leaving bags at school, however, if necessary bags can be left in the Learning Centre on arrival. Food and drink are not permitted in the Gallery and Museum spaces. However, food can be consumed in the Learning Centre area if needed. No pens or sharp objects are allowed in the Gallery and Museum spaces. Please let the Gallery and Museum staff know if you wish to photograph the artwork, teachers are more than welcome to take pictures of their students in the Gallery and Museum spaces and Learning Centre. Please emphasise to students the importance of not touching any artworks or objects on display. We don’t mind talking and noise in the Gallery and Museum but for safety reasons, we do not allow running in the foyer or exhibition spaces.
Risk Assessment and Management (RAMs):
Please download and read.
Publicity:
Gallery and Museum staff love documenting school visits so please advise us if your students do not wish to be photographed.