Village Arts and Eastside Gallery

17/06/2026

Eastside Gallery warmly invites you to the opening of:

"Te Whare Maire o nga Punawerewere 2026"

Opening Event: 5.30-7pm Tuesday 23 June 2026
Exhibition Dates: 23 June 18 July

This group show is a celebration of the mahi of local Māori artists. The name literally refers to young spiders leaving the web and metaphorically refers to the way Eastside Gallery’s exhibition programme nurtures artists as they develop their practice.

This exhibition has been curated by Ara postgraduate student, Sierra Bright, alongside Eastside Gallery's curator.

10 local artists include: Antonia de Lautour, Ben Gilden, Emma Ngawai, George French, Joe Clarke, Mateo Rose, Redgie Walker-Small, Sierra Bright and Tipene Douglas. Deanna Morgan will be in the Mini Gallery.

All welcome, free parking onsite.

Images: George French, "Tiki 26.4," acrylic paint & ink on wool, 2026; Sierra Bright, "Moemoe," harakeke, h**p thread, wire, 2025; Redgie Walker, "The Embryonic - te kore series," acrylic on canvas, 2026.

Location: Linwood Village, 388 Worcester St, Christchurch (free parking & entry)

Open: Wed-Thu: 11am-5pm | Fri-Sat: 10am-5pm

villageartscentre.org.nz

13/06/2026

"Circuitry" by Tom McCone in "Unreal Canterbury," on now at Eastside Gallery until 20 June. The exhibition brings together 11 artists whose works tilt the familiar, unsettle the expected, and reimagine the region.

Tom writes, “Circuitry” was inspired by the show’s theme in many ways. The material from which the video is composed features a wide range of machinery and electronics hosted at Ferrymead Heritage Park, serving as tangible provincial history. To think that these now subfunctional artefacts were critical links in the mechanical infrastructure of the developing region is rightfully unreal.

Further, the audio half was inspired by Roy Montgomery’s “Scenes from the South Island” - a pioneering work in ambient guitar that itself is evocative of the country’s unique textural impressions, including those enclosing and enclosed by the region - while staying true to what I may now be tempted to call my own sensibilities. I hope you can also hear the long straights, windbreaks, downed wires, hazy silhouettes, crimson-painted strips of sunset, parched grasses, and all others that forever run through the plains, hills, peaks, and my head alike.”

Curator’s Note: “Just as water has become a strong thematic current across this exhibition, nostalgia surfaces here as another powerful undertow - not a longing for the past as it was, but respect for the textures, technologies, and rhythms that once shaped everyday life in Canterbury. The work is a meditation on how history is stored - in objects, sound, memory and art - and how easily it can slip into the unreal when the world around it changes.”

Across painting, sculpture, photography, audio visual, textile and monoprints, "Unreal Canterbury" invites viewers to consider not only what this place is, but what it has been, what it might become, and the versions of it we carry within us.

Artists: Cakkie Lou, Dusty Urchin, Joe Furniss, Judy Rogers, Meg Maguire, Milly Brown, Olivia Mercer, Ros Huppert, Ross Ellen, Sarah Brown and Tom McCone.

Floor talks with the Curator will take place every Saturday at 11am throughout the show.

Exhibition Dates: 26 May - 20 June 2026

Location: Linwood Village, 388 Worcester St, Christchurch (free parking & entry)

Open: Wed-Thu: 11am-5pm | Fri-Sat: 10am-5pm

villageartscentre.org.nz

12/06/2026

We love the variety of activities going on at the Village Arts Centre these days. Tomorrow there's a vintage clothing market in Eastside. Why not check it out? 10am-3pm, 388 Worcester St.

12/06/2026

"The First Four Ships of Theseus" by Olivia Mercer in "Unreal Canterbury," on now at Eastside Gallery until 20 June. The exhibition brings together 11 artists whose works tilt the familiar, unsettle the expected, and reimagine the region.

Olivia writes, “This is an exploration of the Theseus Paradox in relation to Canterbury pre- and post-earthquakes. This paradox asks the question - if you replace all of the parts of an object over time, does it remain the same object? Or has an entirely new creation been born? If you replace and redesign all of the damaged parts of Christchurch, does Christchurch still remain?

We can also apply the Theseus paradox to colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand. If settlers change every part of the whenua, replace the indigenous with capitalist colonialism in totality - would this whenua cease to be Aotearoa? Has Christchurch ceased to be Ōtautahi since the arrival of the first four ships?”

Curator’s note: “Through its constellation of Canterbury symbols, Olivia's work captures a sense of uneasy instability: a landscape that looks like home yet feels subtly other. It is this tension between recognition and estrangement that anchors the work within the exhibition.”

Across painting, sculpture, photography, audio visual, textile and monoprints, "Unreal Canterbury" invites viewers to consider not only what this place is, but what it has been, what it might become, and the versions of it we carry within us.

Artists: Cakkie Lou, Dusty Urchin, Joe Furniss, Judy Rogers, Meg Maguire, Milly Brown, Olivia Mercer, Ros Huppert, Ross Ellen, Sarah Brown and Tom McCone.

Floor talks with the Curator will take place every Saturday at 11am throughout the show.

Exhibition Dates: 26 May - 20 June 2026

All welcome, free parking onsite.

Location: Linwood Village, 388 Worcester St, Christchurch (free parking & entry)

Open: Wed-Thu: 11am-5pm | Fri-Sat: 10am-5pm

villageartscentre.org.nz

11/06/2026

Works by Joe Furniss in "Unreal Canterbury," on now at Eastside Gallery until 20 June. The exhibition brings together 11 artists whose works tilt the familiar, unsettle the expected, and reimagine the region.

Joe writes, "'Canterbury Plains (Making a Return)' is a floor based installation of carved terracotta bricks and recycled lambskin offcuts that seek to resemble an idyllic Canterbury scene, invoking rolling boulders, soft grass, and the landscape perspectives of the Canterbury Regionalists. This idyll is disrupted by the post manufactured materials that imitate it…The construction of this work reflects an absurd and futile attempt at repatriation… While these materials would, over long spans of erosion or decay, enact their own processes of return, the sculptural gesture becomes knowingly impossible - a provocation toward reconsidering what genuine repair with the whenua might require from the systems that have altered it.

'Below Every Boundary' is a work that responds to a specific site above Ōhikaparuparu, blending wild clays and found objects to explore the fluidity and agency of the whenua across imposed industrial and systemic borders… The remnants of industry scattered across the hills begin to appear as hollow shells - burdens of a colonial hunger that call to be questioned and dismantled. Perhaps fences never carved up the land at all; perhaps they only fractured the people who built them."

Across painting, sculpture, photography, audio visual, textile and monoprints, "Unreal Canterbury" invites viewers to consider not only what this place is, but what it has been, what it might become, and the versions of it we carry within us.

Artists: Cakkie Lou, Dusty Urchin, Joe Furniss, Judy Rogers, Meg Maguire, Milly Brown, Olivia Mercer, Ros Huppert, Ross Ellen, Sarah Brown and Tom McCone.

Floor talks with the Curator will take place every Saturday at 11am throughout the show.

Exhibition Dates: 26 May - 20 June 2026

All welcome, free parking onsite.

Location: Linwood Village, 388 Worcester St, Christchurch (free parking & entry)

Open: Wed-Thu: 11am-5pm | Fri-Sat: 10am-5pm

villageartscentre.org.nz

10/06/2026

"The One" by Milly Brown in "Unreal Canterbury," on now at Eastside Gallery until 20 June. The exhibition brings together 11 artists whose works tilt the familiar, unsettle the expected, and reimagine the region.

Milly writes, “The One” is about burden and mercy. The palette is bruised - indigos, ashy whites, and rust - so the light has to fight its way through. That struggle is the point: compassion is not decorative; it costs. I worked with layered glazes, dragged brushwork, and scratched lines to let accidents remain visible - like scars on the surface. Those marks carry the weather of the scene and the weight of memory. The lamb’s face is rendered with quieter detail, a small locus of calm against the storm around it.

This piece sits between tenderness and endurance. It asks what it means to protect something gentle when everything in you is pierced or tired. It is about self-sacrifice.”

Curator’s Note: "While there are many ways to read Milly’s work, in the context of this exhibition, I prefer to see it as a pointed challenge to the stereotype of the rural Canterbury man as stoic, unyielding, and hard. It suggests an alternative masculinity grounded in responsibility, interdependence, and the recognition that strength can look like gentleness. It’s a reminder that the stories we tell about this region, and the people who sustain it, are never as singular or rigid as the clichés imply."

Across painting, sculpture, photography, audio visual, textile and monoprints, "Unreal Canterbury" invites viewers to consider not only what this place is, but what it has been, what it might become, and the versions of it we carry within us.

Artists: Cakkie Lou, Dusty Urchin, Joe Furniss, Judy Rogers, Meg Maguire, Milly Brown, Olivia Mercer, Ros Huppert, Ross Ellen, Sarah Brown and Tom McCone.

Floor talks with the Curator will take place every Saturday at 11am throughout the show.

Exhibition Dates: 26 May - 20 June 2026

All welcome, free parking onsite.

Location: Linwood Village, 388 Worcester St, Christchurch (free parking & entry)

Open: Wed-Thu: 11am-5pm | Fri-Sat: 10am-5pm

villageartscentre.org.nz

09/06/2026

Works by Sarah Brown in "Unreal Canterbury," on now at Eastside Gallery until 20 June. The exhibition brings together 11 artists whose works tilt the familiar, unsettle the expected, and reimagine the region.

Sarah writes, “I'm particularly interested in place, in capturing the raw essence of it. Not only the physical beauty of the locality, the architecture, the flora and fauna, but also the underlying feeling that resides there. I try to achieve this by using salvaged materials including linoleum, carpet and wallpaper; materials that have a presence of their own through their absorbed histories.

Perhaps due to it sliding into cooler seasons plus the ongoing precarious geo-political situation, I’m drawn to the softness and comfort that woollen carpet provides and also to its link to the land. Canterbury dons its brown pelt over summer and it is these colours that I have in mind and hope to capture. There’s a softness in the curves of the hills but also the sharpness of hidden faultlines below.”

Curator’s Note: “There is a quiet nostalgia running through these works - not a longing for an idealised past, but for the places we used to love. The salvaged linoleum from Elsie Locke’s historic Avon Loop cottage carries that memory directly: a fragment of a home that no longer stands, its surface holding the imprint of decades of footsteps, warmth, and domestic labour.

The vintage woollen carpet works extend this conversation into the wider region - a material tied to the land, its industries, and the homes it once warmed. The abstract compositions cut the landscape into small parcels, echoing the way the Canterbury Plains were sliced up for farming. Here, though, the divisions are intimate rather than industrial: tiny territories of colour and texture built from salvaged materials. Their reuse signals the need to work within environmental limits – pieces from previous lives reassembled into a landscape both held together and continually shifting, much like Canterbury.”

Across painting, sculpture, photography, audio visual, textile and monoprints, "Unreal Canterbury" invites viewers to consider not only what this place is, but what it has been, what it might become, and the versions of it we carry within us.

Artists: Cakkie Lou, Dusty Urchin, Joe Furniss, Judy Rogers, Meg Maguire, Milly Brown, Olivia Mercer, Ros Huppert, Ross Ellen, Sarah Brown and Tom McCone.

Floor talks with the Curator will take place every Saturday at 11am throughout the show.

Exhibition Dates: 26 May - 20 June 2026

All welcome, free parking onsite.

Location: Linwood Village, 388 Worcester St, Christchurch (free parking & entry)
Open: Wed-Thu: 11am-5pm | Fri-Sat: 10am-5pm

villageartscentre.org.nz

09/06/2026

After being booked out all year so far, some spaces are starting to open up in Wednesday's Drawing Fundamentals class from 1-2.30pm with Maree Cole. Now's your chance to learn core drawing skills using a wide variety of materials in a friendly and welcoming space. Maree makes it easy for everyone!

No experience necessary and all materials are supplied.

You can jump in anytime and do as many classes as you like. There's no enrolment but you do need to book a spot as numbers are limited. You can always book up to 8 weeks in advance.

You can book by scanning the QR code, visiting our website, emailing [email protected] or phoning 03 981 2881. Please give us an email and cellphone number. The quickest way to ensure you don't miss out is to book online. And even if a particular week is already booked up, it's a good idea to go on the waiting list. Especially at this time of year, people find they need to cancel due to sickness etc. so those on the waiting list fairly often end up with a spot. In those cases we phone you and you can decide if you'd like to come along or not (no obligation, in other words).

$7.50/$6.50* with a concession card or $15/$13* casual.

You can easily buy a concession card when you come along to a class. They can be used interchangeably to pay for any of our Centre-run classes and are valid for a year from the date of purchase. There are $45/$39* and $75/$65* options available.

*Discount for Community Service Card holders.

Eftpos, Paywave, Visa and cash all fine.

Location: Village Arts Centre, Linwood Village, 388 Worcester St, Christchurch, free parking onsite.

Opening Hours: Wednesday-Thursday 11am-5pm, Friday-Saturday 10am-5pm.

We offer 11 weekly classes & activities, run exhibitions and events in Eastside and the Mini and hire our spaces for arts activities and events evenings and weekends.

We are committed to artist development through our exhibition programme and community development via participation in our creative spaces.

We have 8 open calls for local artists in 2026. In the last financial year we exhibited the work of 384 local artists.

More info: villageartscentre.org.nz

This friendly, welcoming class is for all levels. Learn a wide variety of materials. Maree makes it easy for everyone! Join in anytime and do as many c...

07/06/2026

"The Arrival, 1957" by Ros Huppert in "Unreal Canterbury," on now at Eastside Gallery until 20 June. The exhibition brings together 11 artists whose works tilt the familiar, unsettle the expected, and reimagine the region.

Ros writes, “Set in 1957, this scene captures the quiet gravity of progress arriving at the farm gate. The children stand before the Land Rover as if for a portrait of the future - the contrast between their innocence and the machine’s purpose reflects a rural world on the cusp of transformation – where identity, land, and time begin to move differently.”

Curator’s Note: “The painterly handling of this work suggests a memory of rural life that’s under threat, as if at risk of being wiped away. Caught between presence and disappearance, the unstable surface reminds us that the past is never fixed; it shifts and falters, leaving us with images that feel both familiar and precarious.”

Across painting, sculpture, photography, audio visual, textile and monoprints, "Unreal Canterbury" invites viewers to consider not only what this place is, but what it has been, what it might become, and the versions of it we carry within us.

Artists: Cakkie Lou, Dusty Urchin, Joe Furniss, Judy Rogers, Meg Maguire, Milly Brown, Olivia Mercer, Ros Huppert, Ross Ellen, Sarah Brown and Tom McCone.

Floor talks with the Curator will take place every Saturday at 11am throughout the show.

Exhibition Dates: 26 May - 20 June 2026

All welcome, free parking onsite.

Location: Linwood Village, 388 Worcester St, Christchurch (free parking & entry)

Open: Wed-Thu: 11am-5pm | Fri-Sat: 10am-5pm

villageartscentre.org.nz

06/06/2026

"Braided River" by Judy Rogers in "Unreal Canterbury," on now at Eastside Gallery until 20 June. The exhibition brings together 11 artists whose works tilt the familiar, unsettle the expected, and reimagine the region.

Judy writes, "I almost always make new work with reused artworks and materials, and “Braided River” has had previous lives as different paintings: Years ago, I made a sewn canvas oil painting called “Sea Cloak”; Later, I cut strips from it and added driftwood and painted fabric for a new work called “Tumbling”, as the effect was like a waterfall; And now, here is the third water-themed iteration – “Braided River”."

Curator’s Note: “Alongside several works in this exhibition concerned with water and the environment, Judy's work adds a pointed metaphorical layer: a piece about the health of our braided rivers that has itself been physically braided. It’s a reminder that the familiar “clean and green” refrain can slip into unreal greenwashing. That tension is sharpened further by Judy’s use of recycled materials, which underscores the call for responsibility rather than rhetoric.”

Across painting, sculpture, photography, audio visual, textile and monoprints, "Unreal Canterbury" invites viewers to consider not only what this place is, but what it has been, what it might become, and the versions of it we carry within us.

Artists: Cakkie Lou, Dusty Urchin, Joe Furniss, Judy Rogers, Meg Maguire, Milly Brown, Olivia Mercer, Ros Huppert, Ross Ellen, Sarah Brown and Tom McCone.

Floor talks with the Curator will take place every Saturday at 11am throughout the show.

Exhibition Dates: 26 May - 20 June 2026

All welcome, free parking onsite.

Location: Linwood Village, 388 Worcester St, Christchurch (free parking & entry)
Open: Wed-Thu: 11am-5pm | Fri-Sat: 10am-5pm

villageartscentre.org.nz