14 Oct 2016

Take a step back in time and learn more about the city’s rich past during two free events at The Arts Centre and Canterbury Museum this weekend.

The events have been organised as part of Beca Heritage Week, which officially starts today.

At the Be A Time Traveller event at  the Arts Centre, from 10am to 4pm on Sunday, you will  get the chance to be an archaeologist and unearth evidence of Christchurch’s past in a recreated excavation pit. The buried artefacts have been sourced from a demolished home on Oxford Tce and represent what you would typically expect to find inside the walls, under the floors, down the loo and up the garden path of an old home.

Or you can take the opportunity to watch a person being transformed into a work of art at 2.30pm in the Arts Centre Gymnasium.

Artist Julia Holden uses people's faces as her canvas.

Artist Julia Holden uses people's faces as her canvas.

Christchurch-based artist Julia Holden will create one of her novel, living artworks using Resene house paint applied with a brush directly on to the face, hair and clothing of a model.

For Be a Time Traveller, Holden will recreate the well-known portrait of artist Leo Bensemann by Rita Angus using local painter Sam Clague as a model. When the water-based paint has been applied to his skin and costume the final result will be photographed, creating a work that is a hybrid of painting, sculpture and photography.

Holden is about to hold an exhibition called Lyttelton Redux, for which she has collaborated with Lyttelton Museum and local residents to create portraits of figures connected to Lyttelton's past. The exhibition, which opens on November 8, will be a fundraiser for the Lyttelton Museum. 

You will also have the chance to rediscover the Arts Centre, which is one of the most significant collections of heritage buildings in New Zealand. The Arts Centre has been largely off-bounds to the public since the Canterbury earthquakes but on Sunday the North Quad and Library will be re-opened and the Arts Centre Market Square will come to life with entertainment and vintage markets.

Arts Centre Chief Executive André Lovatt said the Heritage Week celebrations were the perfect opportunity for people to reacquaint themselves with the Arts Centre's beautiful spaces.

“The Library is an architectural gem of a building that has been beautifully restored to make the most of its open plan space and natural lighting. To access the Library, visitors will walk through the North Quad with its new paths, walls and grassed areas – along with the original wooden benches.

 “Both spaces hold a lot of memories for the people of Canterbury and I can’t wait to see how people react when they get to enjoy them once again,'' Mr Lovatt said.

If you want a break from exploring the Arts Centre nip across the road to Canterbury Museum's Bird Hall between 1 and 2pm on Sunday for Quick Fire: Hidden Histories. There, you will get to hear fascinating tales - in seven-minute bites - from an archaeologist, a conservation architect, a genealogist, a Maori heritage advisor and historians.  

You will learn about some of the surprising artefacts that have been discovered in Christchurch during post-quake demolition work and hear about the men who went to prison rather than fight in a war they did not believe in.