MEDIA RELEASE: The Chartwell Chair: A Chartwell 50th Anniversary Project

.nav__list, .logo, .nav-slide{ filter: none !important; } section:not(.hero), .hero__inner{ opacity: 1; }

Being

Creative visual thinking is fundamental to us all as human beings as we strive to understand our sense of self and the world. Chartwell seeks to deepen understanding about the importance of art and creative thinking for our future and our wellbeing.

In 2024-2025 Chartwell celebrates its 50th Anniversary, marked in part by the publication of our Chartwell Project book. Purchase your copy here.

Seeing

Chartwell is an explorer of the visual world. We want to know more about how and what we see. When both the eye and the mind are active, the creative process opens to the artist and viewer. The Chartwell Collection provides the viewer many examples of creative visual thought in action.

Making

Chartwell supports artists as they make and think. Making is an active and connected process, involving the interaction of intention, intuition and intellect with the mediums of the world. Chartwell is making too - making a difference through philanthropy and enabling access to creative activities and research.

Thinking

Chartwell encourages everyone to think about art and the creative process with a commitment to drive an understanding about the significance of the visual arts to general creative thinking. We share a curiosity to know and learn more: an imaginative, ongoing investigation.

Return to News

27 March 2024

A Chartwell Chair, Centre for Contemporary Art, Hamilton 1990

The Chartwell Chair is a no-cost participatory project for galleries, from dealer galleries to public galleries in New Zealand and Australia, who may wish to celebrate Chartwell’s 50th Anniversary in 2024-2025.

Rob Gardiner, the founder of the Chartwell Trust and Collection, loves the chance to sit down in art galleries, to slow down and really look at an artwork. He often asks why we are offered a seat at the cinema, theatre, concert hall and sports stadium, and applaud at the end of a performance, but in art galleries, we are conditioned to stand silently in front of a work and move on.

The Chartwell Chair gives gallery visitors the time to relax, feel and be with an artwork, allowing the viewing experience to unfold.

Chartwell would like to thank Amy Malcolm for her wonderful chair idea and for her work over the years with the Creative Thinking Project at the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau