About
The Aorere Museum of Art is located in a 120 year old heritage building in Collingwood, Mohua / Golden Bay, at the mouth of the Aorere River. The art-clad building has stunning views to the river, ocean and mountains.
Founded in 2026 by conservationist, photographer and teacher Craig Potton alongside community development advocate and teacher James Alker, the museum is the culmination of a long held dream and belief that encounters with art and landscape can meaningfully shape the way we see, feel, and live.
Our collection partially rotates each year. We host an annual artist residency, visiting artist talks and intend to host select visiting exhibitions.
I am deeply honoured to be the founding patron of the Aorere Museum of Art, a beautiful and courageous home for art, spirit, and imagination in this extraordinary corner of Aotearoa.
— Max Gimblett ONZM
Founding Patron
AMoA’s founding patron is one of New Zealand’s most important abstract artists. Max Gimblett has an international reputation including works in the prestigious New York Guggenheim Museum of Art.
Max lives in New York but frequently visits and exhibits in New Zealand. A Zen priest, Max’s work is unabashedly gestural and spiritual.
The Aorere Residency
The annual Aorere art residency is for artists whose practice is rooted in the natural world. The residency offers space for reflection, research, and creative development within an environment shaped by river, mountain, sea, and light.
The residency is intended as both a gift to the artist and a living resource for the regional creative community. Community engagement is approached flexibly and thoughtfully, allowing forms of exchange to emerge in ways aligned with each artist’s process and practice.
Hosted by Craig Potton, whose own work has long been characterised by meditation with the natural world, the programme supports practices grounded in attentiveness, contemplation, and relationship with the elements that surround us.
What is a nature-based practice?
Work that listens to, responds to, or is made in relationship with the natural world.