In 1870 New Zealand's first art school was opened in Dunedin with David Con Hutton, then recently arrived from Scotland, as its first drawing master. The school was established in two large rooms in what is now the Stock Exchange Building and was under the control of the education board. In 1874 the school moved into rooms in the newly completed Normal School building where additional teachers were appointed. Affiliation with the art department of the South Kensington School of Science, London, followed and in 1894 Hutton became principal of the Otago School of Art and Design. He retired in 1908. Robert Hawcridge, who became director the following year, strongly favoured an independent school of art and he resisted a move that the board of managers of the Technical Association should take it over. This extremely versatile artist did much in his 10 years as director to expand the scope and influence of the school. After his death in 1920, for reasons of economy, the school became a branch of King Edward Technical College. A. H. O'Keeffe, widely known and deeply respected throughout New Zealand as a painter, succeeded Robert Hawcridge. His term of office was one of extreme difficulty owing to lack of suitable accommodation and of finance, aggravated by public apathy.

In 1925 both T. H. Jenkin, A.R.C.A., and F. V. Ellis, A.R.C.A., who had been appointed to the staff in 1922, resigned and were replaced by W. A. Allen and R. N. Field, both associates of Royal College. J. D. Charlton Edgar replaced W. H. Allen, who resigned in 1930. In 1937 the school was installed in the present well designed building adjacent to but separate from the Technical College. F. G. Shewell is the present head. Today the emphasis is placed on design in relation to fine craft work, the aim being to combine a painting school with a sound training in industrial design.

Fifty years after the school was opened in 1882, powers were granted to the governing body, that of Canterbury College, to cooperate with the University of New Zealand in conferring a Diploma in the Fine Arts. In 1950 the school was recognised as a special school of the university and became part of Canterbury University College. In 1957, Canterbury University College, with the School of Art as an integral part, became the University of Canterbury.

David Blair was the first headmaster, 1882–86, followed by G. H. Elliott until 1905. R. Herdman-Smith, F.S.A.M., was then appointed director until 1917, and he was succeeded by Frederick G. Gurnsay (acting director) 1917–20, Archibald F. Nicoll, O.B.E., 1920–28, Richard Wallwork, A.R.C.A., 1928–45, and Colin G. Lovell-Smith, DIP.F.A., 1945 till 1960. John Simpson was appointed first professor of fine art in 1961.

In 1957 the School moved from premises at the corner of Rolleston Avenue and Hereford Street to the present beautiful site at Okeover, 108 Ilam Road, Riccarton. Consideration is being given to the introduction of a degree course in fine arts and design, and the inclusion of a wide range of additional subjects such as typography, creative photography, ceramics, interior decoration, theatrical design, and design for film and television.

The Elam School of Art was founded in 1890 following a bequest by John Edward Elam, a prominent citizen of Auckland, who had been keenly interested in the arts. The first director was E. W. Peyton, 1890–1923, who was succeeded by A. J. C. Fisher, A.R.C.A., 1923–59. Paul Beadle was appointed first professor of fine art in 1961. Until 1949, the school was administered by the Education Department students entering under Government free place or paying fees as applicable. In 1949 the school buildings in Symonds Street were destroyed by fire, and since then the school has been housed in temporary accommodation at the old Newton West School. Great North Road, and in the one remaining building at Symonds Street.

Since 1950, when the school became a special school of the University of Auckland, courses have been available for the Diploma in Fine Arts in either painting, sculpture, or design. Classes are also available for students studying the Preliminary Diploma in Fine Arts and part-time subjects. Hopes for the future include: the establishment of a Bachelor of Fine Arts course; the addition of ceramics to the department of sculpture; and the development of the design department to include industrial design.

New school buildings at the rear of St. Paul's Church, Symonds Street, are now occupied.

There are four major art schools in New Zealand, two being university schools and two associated with the technical colleges in Wellington and Dunedin under the control of the Department of Education. Many secondary schools throughout the country provide art courses and in the smaller centres art classes for adults are provided, mainly in the evenings. Art classes for day students in High Schools and Technical Colleges must be fitted in to a curriculum governed by School Certificate and University Entrance requirements, and anything like a complete art course cannot be provided. There is frequently close cooperation with local art societies and clubs, and valuable though unspectacular results are achieved. There are no private art schools of importance and very few private art teachers.

Candidates for the art schools have had, therefore, little preparatory training. The Fine Arts Preliminary examination, a prerequisite for the university schools, is elementary, and cannot be compared with the normal University Entrance requirements. Much of the usual three-year course is thus, of necessity, devoted to bringing students up to the standard which would be required for admission to one of the overseas schools or colleges. The recent appointments of professors of fine art at Auckland and Christchurch could well mean a thorough revision of the present unsatisfactory situation.

Art is a lively subject in our primary schools. Art training is part of the normal course at teachers' colleges and there are opportunities for suitable students to undertake an extension course for specialist art teachers. Robert Donn, a Scot trained in Glasgow who taught at teachers' colleges in Dunedin and Auckland, was one of the first to lift the teaching of art in schools from the doldrums into high favour, and his pioneering work has been developed by a number of gifted artist-teachers, the majority recruited from overseas.

The property, in Wai-iti Road, was given to the citizens of Timaru by J. W. Grant in 1956. The grounds, about two acres, are maintained as a park, the residence being used for the display of works of art. The gallery is administered and financed by the Timaru City Council. A small permanent collection of paintings, drawings, prints, and ceramics is enlarged from time to time by purchases, gifts, or bequests. Suitable travelling exhibitions are shown at the gallery.

by Stewart Bell Maclennan, A.R.C.A.(LOND.), Director, National Art Gallery, Wellington.

The Southland Art Gallery Trust Board has been responsible for pressing for the completion of the art gallery section of the centennial project of 1940. The Board believed that a small city gallery was still necessary in spite of the opening of the gallery at Anderson Park in 1951.

A gallery 50 ft by 40 ft, with adjacent office and storeroom, has been added to the museum building in Queen's Park and was opened in 1961. A small collection of original paintings will be supplemented by a comprehensive selection of high quality reproductions for educational displays.

In 1951 the family of the late Sir Robert Anderson and Lady Anderson presented to the city of Invercargill for an Art Gallery the former home of their parents, a house of two storeys, Georgian in style and set in some 12 acres of parkland, surrounded by 60 acres of native bush. It is four miles north of Invercargill. The gallery is controlled by the executive of the Invercargill Public Art Gallery Society. The City Council keeps the grounds in order and makes a grant of £200 to the society. A grant from the Invercargill savings bank and members' subscriptions provide a further income.

Profits from art exhibitions staged regularly since 1944 by the art committee of the Southland University Association, together with occasional grants from the City Council and public, were used by the committee to acquire the nucleus of a civic collection. This has been steadily built up. The majority of the works are by New Zealand artists.

The gallery was founded in 1898 under the Suter Art Society Act 1897, as a memorial to Andrew Burn Suter, Bishop of Nelson. The trust board was incorporated under the Charitable, Religious, and Educational Trusts Act 1908. Income derives from £1,100 grant from the Nelson City Council, interest on investments, rentals, etc. Until recently there was no staff employed, the members of the board, assisted by members of the Suter Art Society, voluntarily carried out the work of the gallery. A gallery attendant has now been appointed.

The permanent collection includes comprehensive collections of watercolours by John Gully and J. C. Richmond, and a small but stimulating contemporary section. There have been valuable recent gifts from the Contemporary Art Society enriched by the Mollie Davies Stevens Collection.

Apart from the Suter Art Society exhibitions, the board arranges a number of loan exhibitions from local and other sources.

This gallery, beautifully situated in Queen's park, was officially opened in 1919, and was founded through generosity of Henry Sarjeant. The permanent collection, however, was started in 1901 when the committee of the Wanganui Arts Society, of which Mrs Sarjeant was a member, purchased the first picture for the town's collection. The gallery is maintained by the Wanganui City Council and administered by a subcommittee of the Council, with an honorary curator. The collection is mainly representative of English and New Zealand painting of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It contains a notable gift collection from William Hesketh, first Viscount Leverhulme, and bequests from Sydney and Prudence Davis, Margaret A. Duncan, and others. An active programme of loan and temporary exhibitions is a feature of the gallery.

In 1889 the city of Dunedin found itself in possession of a number of pictures purchased from the New Zealand South Seas International Exhibition as the nucleus of a civic collection but with no art gallery to house them. The newly formed Art Gallery Society solved the problem by purchasing two sections of the temporary exhibition building, a long structure of timber and corrugated iron, and had these erected at the end of the museum building. These served until 1905 when Lady McLean inspired a movement to erect a gallery which has since become the Early Settlers' Museum.

In 1925–26 an important art exhibition, a feature of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, was shown in an attractive, well designed gallery built for the purpose in Logan Park. Sir Percy and Lady Sargood purchased the building and presented it to the city as a memorial to their son killed in the First World War. This is now the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Two-thirds of the permanent collection is devoted to overseas art and includes a fine Romney and other notable British and foreign works from the eighteenth century to the present day. The other third comprises a representational collection of New Zealand art, Van der Velden's “Otira Gorge” being particularly noteworthy. There are also collections of period furniture and objets d'art. The gallery is administered for the city by a board of trustees elected by the Gallery Society and on which the City Council is represented. Income is derived mainly from City Council grants, membership subscriptions, donations, and interest on investments. Mrs Annette Pearse was appointed curator in 1945 and director in 1951. She retired in 1965 and was succeeded by J. D. Charlton Edgar.