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.