Community Painting Day

Everyone's welcome at the SCAPE-Youth Hub Mural

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Should New Brighton have a Sculpture Trail?

Join SCAPE for community conversations about public art

Click here for New Brighton hui details

Explore public art in the city

Ōtautahi Christchurch has a growing collection of contemporary public art produced by SCAPE. Many are within close proximity in the central city. This map shows SCAPE's legacy artworks as red pins, and Season 2024 artworks as black pins.

Art all year

SCAPE’s vision is for Ōtautahi Christchurch as a global public art destination. The city currently has 18 SCAPE-produced sculptures permanently installed in public space, and we are working with communities across Ōtautahi to expand the collection.

This Summer we added yet more creativity to the city with new sculpture and lightboxes by New Zealand artists, specially commissioned by SCAPE.

SCAPE Season 2024 is over, but some venue partners have extended arrangements so you can still enjoy some of the work. Visit: Hotel Montreal, Christchurch Botanic Gardens, Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre, and the lightboxes near Te Pae managed by Toi Ōtautahi.

Many thanks again to all our venues, funders, supporters, patrons and suppliers, with special mention of our four Platinum Sponsors: Christchurch City Council, Creative NZ, Rātā Foundation, and The Lion Foundation.

SCAPE Season 2025 open on 8 November.

Bibbidi Bobbidi Booo, 2024

This work represents the search for hope within hopelessness, where within dark places individuals seek solutions or answers outside of ...

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Carry Me With You

This artwork was commissioned by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, with the support of Auckland Art Gallery Contemporary Benefactors ...

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Figure Studies, 2024

Artist-designer Florence Weir (1899–1979) was born in Ōtautahi Christchurch and spent much of the 1920s and 30s working in England, ...

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Hack Hoops, 2024

In Hack Hoops two backyard basketball hoops found by the artist are attached to two trees. A Chinese windmill palm ...

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he rerenga ki raro, 2024

He aha te ahunga? Ko wai te tuupuna?  Rarohenga is another realm, often referred to as the underworld, and in ...

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his light, their light, my light, 2024

his light, their light, my light is a photographic series adapted from a short-run artist book of the same name. ...

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Immemorial and thus a future, 2024

The very first telegraph line in Aotearoa ran between Ōhinehou Lyttelton and Ōtautahi Christchurch. British engineer Edmund Green was commissioned ...

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Pīngao, 2024

For centuries, native coastal plants played a key role in stabilising sand dunes around the country. One such plant, endemic ...

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Season 2024

SCAPE Public Art Season 2024 opens on 23 November. The theme set by Managing Curator Tyson Campbell is: Material / ...

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Inside Out Aspiring Artists Competition

Inside Out is about taking what’s inside and turning it into art that will live outside. Young artists: entries for ...

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Season 2023

In its 25th anniversary year, SCAPE Public Art is proud to present Season 2023. Marked out with four kilometres of ...

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Season 2022

The SCAPE Public Art Season 2022 runs from 5 November 2022 to 29 January 2023 and is a highlight of ...

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Featured artists

Darcell Apelu

Darcell Apelu (b. 1990 Niue, Pākehā & Te Atiawa) graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (2011) and a Masters ...

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Ngaio Cowell

Ngaio Cowell (Ngaati Te Ata Te Waiohua, Waikato, Ngāti Porou) is a self-described haututū and ringatoi based in Ōhinehou- Lyttelton. ...

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Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body ...

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Brett Graham

Brett Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura,Tainui) is a sculptor who creates large-scale artworks and installations that explore indigenous histories, politics and ...

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Julia Holderness

Julia Holderness lives and works in Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University ...

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Kulimoe'anga Stone Maka

Kulimoe’anga Stone Maka is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice is deeply rooted in the traditions of Tongan art. Believing abstract ...

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SCAPE Executive Director to leave for Court Theatre

SCAPE Public Art is announcing Executive Director Richard Aindow will leave the organisation in three months to become Chief Executive ...

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Major artwork a taonga for Rolleston

Selwyn District’s newest public artwork will be officially opened on 6 July 2024. Toro Atua, by Dr Areta Wilkinson (Ngāi ...

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Jon Jeet's He Toki Maitai gets permanent home

A monumental-size steel toki has a new home in New Brighton, Christchurch. SCAPE Public Art commissioned artist Jon Jeet to ...

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Education

Art expands minds

SCAPE Public Art’s education programme provides unique art-making activities inspired by public art in their city. 
Teachers can choose from a range of options to suit their curriculum focus. All are free of charge. 
More information here

Community Painting Day

Help rangatahi paint a mural with street artists Pops and Lucas. Make your own mark at Youth Hub Christchurch.

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Artist talk, by Julia Holderness

Join us for a conversation about artists, real and imaginary, with Dr Julia Holderness, whose ongoing construction of the life and work of Florence Weir is a thread through her practice.

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