Decades Charted: A window into the Chartwell Collection

23 February - 21 July 2024

Daily 10am to 5pm

Free entry

For five decades the Chartwell Trust has worked to create a world-class collection of Aotearoa New Zealand contemporary art to nourish our creative souls, and it all began here, in Kirikiriroa Hamilton. 

This exhibition at Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga O Waikato offers a window into the vast collection of artworks purchased by the charitable trust during its Kirikiriroa Hamilton years, 1974-1997.

Robert Gardiner launched the visionary project that would bring over 500 artworks to this city, exhibiting the collection in the refurbished Hamilton Hotel building on Victoria Street from 1982, before moving to Auckland Art Gallery in 1997.

We welcome key artworks back to Kirikiriroa Hamilton, in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Chartwell Collection.

A Chartwell 50th Anniversary Project