MTG Hawke’s Bay is more than a museum, theatre and art gallery; it is realising its ambition of becoming a centre of thought-leadership through symposiums, conferences, film programmes, talks and debate. Today MTG Hawke’s Bay embodies much of what its forefathers wanted it to be.
Its William Colenso’s home of ideas, Leo Bestall’s full museum in the miniature, Augustus Hamilton’s keeper of local taonga, James Munro’s collector of New Zealand applied arts and crafts. And alongside this rich history, MTG Hawke’s Bay is a trend-spotter, adroit at reinvention: responsive, smart-thinking and worldly.
Hawke’s Bay’s sense of itself as a distinctive region has always been strong and a succession of institutions have been instrumental in supporting the regions desire to explore that distinctiveness. These include the Mechanics Institute (1859), the Athenaeum (1865), the Philosophical Society (1874), the Napier Society of Arts and Crafts (1924), Hawke’s Bay Art Gallery and Museum (1936), Hawke’s Bay Museum (1989, the Hawke’s Bay Museum & Art Gallery (2006) and MTG Hawke’s Bay (2013).
Source: mtghawkesbay.com