Even after more than 20 years at the Forrester Gallery, director Warwick Smith still has a feeling of joy when he unpacks a new exhibition.
This week he has been preparing for a major exhibition of works by prominent Oamaru artist Colin Wheeler - the feature of the gallery's anniversary celebrations.
The Wheeler exhibition opens tomorrow and includes 60 paintings of Oamaru circa 1980, preparatory drawings in ballpoint pen and ink pen, and ink studies for Wheeler's high country sheep station series.
It is particularly fitting given the inaugural exhibition in the gallery 25 years ago was White Stone Town, also by Wheeler.
Many of the works on display from next week were included in that exhibition and, two and a-half decades on, it provided a wonderful insight into how the town had evolved and developed, Mr Smith said.
The entire gallery, less one space, will be a tribute to Wheeler.
"He's been a real friend to the gallery. It's going to be very special to bring these works together," Mr Smith said.
When contacted, Wheeler (88) said he was "busier than ever" and looking forward to the exhibition opening.
"I don't have a spare moment. That, I am sure, is the way you keep going. I always say you get up in the morning and wonder not what you're going to do but what to do first."
He doubted there was a gallery in the country housed in a building so wonderful, and he was thrilled it had thrived over the past 25 years.
Mr Smith was responsible for making it such a special place, he said.
Mr Smith was the gallery's third director since it opened in 1983, in a spectacular neo-classical building originally constructed in 1884 for the Bank of New South Wales and designed by R.A. Lawson.
The site was acquired by the former Oamaru Borough Council and opened with the help of a substantial legacy from architect and former mayor John Megget Forrester, who died in 1965.
Since then, there had been "so many stand-out shows", with up to 30 exhibitions in a year, Mr Smith said.
There had been numerous highlights for him, including Forty Years of British Sculpture - which was "so much like Christmas", unwrapping works from the likes of Henry Moore and the giants of 20th century British sculpture - and exhibitions featuring the likes of Grahame Sydney, Colin McCahon, Donna Demente, Bing Dawe and Peter Cleverley, the Waitaha treasures and Wheeler's An Otago Odyssey.
Working on his late father's exhibition The Entertainers had also been very special.
Artists Against Aqua, a protest exhibition in 2003 opposing the Project Aqua power scheme, was "quite a bold step" for the gallery and had proved to be a very powerful exhibition, he said.
The building itself was "wonderful" and Mr Smith said he often described it as one of the gems in the gallery's collection. It will celebrate its 125th anniversary next year.
He looked forward to the day when a lift would be installed, making access easier for members of the public, and also to enable art works to be moved more easily.
North Otago artist Burns Pollock, who described the gallery as an "absolute gem", said Mr Smith's personality ran in tandem with the spirit of the gallery.
His acumen, people skills, dedication and sincerity were "just monumental".
"You just want to put your stuff there. He's just that kind of guy."
Mr Smith also had the wit to accommodate the likes of Pollock's exhibition at the Forrester last year. Art and Other Vices took a playful peek at objects amassed throughout Pollock's life - from vices and scissors to oilcans, feathers and pocketknives.
Pollock said the gallery was also a brilliant repository and people could have confidence leaving "granddad's precious painting there", knowing it was safe.
Retired architect Harry Steenson, who is president of Friends of the Forrester Gallery, has a strong connection with the gallery.
John Megget Forrester took Mr Steenson's father, Ivan, into partnership in 1922. Harry Steenson knew Mr Forrester well and remembered him as a "wonderful man".
Mr Forrester, who died just short of his 100th birthday, was very keen on art and had quite a collection of his own, Mr Steenson recalled.
Mr Steenson said one of the reasons he became interested in the gallery was the Forrester connection. He became a custodian in the mid 1990s and now manned the front desk on the second Sunday of every month.
He enjoyed meeting the many tourists who visited.
"It's always interesting to talk to them and hear their reactions to the gallery. Their reactions are all positive," he said.
Friends of the Forrester Gallery, which has "140-odd members", was established to further the interests of the gallery.
Mr Steenson said it was a "tremendous asset" for the town, and he was also looking forward to one day seeing the installation of a lift to improve accessibility.
Probably his greatest thrill was the gift of 17 Colin McCahon works by the Parsloe Trust. That subsequent exhibition, Alpha to Beata, attracted interest from throughout New Zealand.
When Mr Steenson's father's office closed, there were a lot of architectural drawings dating back to the time of Thomas Forrester and John Lemon.
"I felt the only place for them was here in the gallery. They couldn't be anywhere else," Mr Steenson said.
Helen Stead was an Oamaru borough councillor when she chaired the committee which set up the gallery.
While the council initially believed the gallery would only need to be made available for local groups for their exhibitions, the committee was adamant it was important to be a professional gallery, Mrs Stead said.
The gallery was opened by then Waitaki MP and Lands Minister Jonathan Elworthy on May 6, 1983 - the first civic gallery to open in Otago in 99 years, she said.
J.M. Forrester had created, through his benevolence, a dynasty of art, heritage and culture not only for Oamaru but for New Zealand, she said.
