Centre of Contemporary Art

The Canterbury Society of Arts

CoCA began in 1880 as the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery. It was the first organisation to exhibit and collect artworks in Christchurch, and quickly became the most influential and dynamic arts society in New Zealand. Its first exhibition was held in 1881 at Christchurch Boys’ High School, in what later became part of the Christchurch Arts Centre. The CSA played an essential role in New Zealand’s burgeoning arts scene. In the 1930s it exhibited the works of “The Group”; a collection of artists including the eminent New Zealand painters Rita Angus, Evelyn Margaret Page and Doris Lusk. The CSA found its first permanent home in 1890 in a building especially designed for it by society member and acclaimed New Zealand architect Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort (1825-1898). This was a prime example of the function and form of Gothic Revival in New Zealand architecture. A second neighbouring gallery, in the more conservatively favoured Venetian Gothic style, was added in 1894 by Richard Dacre Harman. Both buildings were on the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Register of Historic Places until their demolition following the 2011 Canterbury earthquake.

Gloucester Street and CoCA

In 1968 the CSA moved to larger premises at 66 Gloucester Street. The purpose-built gallery is a major example of the 'Christchurch Style' of modernist buildings designed by Canterbury’s avant-garde architects in the post-war period. The building was honoured by two New Zealand Institute of Architects awards. In the years following this move, the gallery thrived and was renowned for housing some of the most progressive and innovative exhibitions in New Zealand’s history of art. The CSA helped launch the careers of local New Zealand artists including Neil Dawson, Bruce Edgar, Ross Marwick, and Boyd Webb, who had their inaugural exhibitions there in June, 1971.

Change and innovation have always been central to the institution’s identity. In 1996, the CSA gallery was rebranded CoCA Centre of Contemporary Art, the name it is known by today.

Earthquake and recovery

Like many prominent buildings in Christchurch, the CoCA gallery was damaged in the February earthquakes of 2011. In 2013 a “rescue squad of volunteers, former gallery staff on contract and experts from Te Papa recovered all the artworks trapped in the building, including everything on display at the time and the gallery's collection”. Four million dollars has been spent on repairs, strengthening and refurbishment to retain the building and ensure it performs as a 21st-century gallery building should, and to save this outstanding example of Christchurch architecture for years to come, re-establishing it as a centre of development for the New Zealand art scene.

Future and refocus

CoCA reopened on 13 February 2016 in its completely restored and modernised gallery space on Gloucester Street. Trustees have reframed the future of CoCA with a re-energized focus on engaging with people in conversations about contemporary life and culture. "Our new Ambition is 'Making a unique contribution to the cultural life of Christchurch – presenting contemporary art programmes that enrich and strengthen our community by enabling and encouraging critical dialogue about the world we live in’". There is also a renewed effort to make the arts accessible to all, and to incorporate public art in public space, moving beyond and outside the walls and confines of conventional gallery space and engaging with the larger environment and community of Christchurch. The gallery was closed again temporarily after the 2016 Christchurch earthquake struck the day after the reopening.