Vision and values

A catalyst for art and ideas

Welcome to Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Auckland Art Gallery is a cultural leader in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our purpose is to be a place for art and a catalyst for ideas. We offer experiences that strengthen and enrich our communities, and we value collaboration and dialogue.

Audiences are at the heart of all our activities, which extend out from the Gallery’s home in the arts and learning precinct of Auckland's central city. We provide visitors with fresh ways to think about art and participate in creativity. Expand your cultural horizons through our remarkable collection and by experiencing our temporary exhibitions. Join the conversations generated by our innovative visitor events, outreach activities and education programmes, and become part of our connected community.

With multiple exhibition spaces spreading across four levels of our award-winning building, we are the largest and most inspiring visual arts experience in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our collection and loan collections currently number more than 18,000 artworks. Together, they include major holdings of New Zealand historic, modern and contemporary art. Alongside outstanding works by Māori and Pacific artists, they represent significant international painting, sculpture and print collections. 

New thinking and research informs our programming, which is supported by the resources of the E H McCormick Research Library and the Conservation Research Centre. Our publishing programme turns exhibition ideas and other research into books and online publications that keep connecting people with ideas and with each other.

​As the fastest growing city in Australasia, Auckland has strong Māori and Pacific populations, as well as an expanding Asian demographic. In this context, we play a vital role as an inclusive hub for creativity for the city’s diverse communities.

<p>A warm welcome</p>

A warm welcome

Our purpose

To play a central role in the cultural life of Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and Aotearoa New Zealand, strengthening and enriching our communities through art and ideas. Collaborating with others, we offer inspiring art experiences that engage and challenge.

Our ambition is to:

Collect & Exhibit

We enrich lives through engagement with the art and artists of Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific, alongside the significant art movements globally of the past and present.

Connect & Engage

We engage broad and diverse audiences with art and ideas.

Partner & Collaborate

We partner with others to maximise the impact of the art collection and our programmes.

Capability & Resilience

We build organisational capability and resilience to extend the impact of our work in the community and in people’s lives.

Ngā Mātāpono – Our Values

Manaakitanga
We care for others

  • We are united by a common passion to host and care for everyone who comes to the Gallery. We offer a safe and comfortable space to engage in authentic and meaningful experiences through art, and by a shared belief that through art we know ourselves, each other and the world more deeply.
  • We actively engage with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Aotearoa New Zealand’s biculturalism, and our role in building diverse and thriving communities inclusive of LGBTQI+ people.

Kaitiaki
We are custodians

  • We are honoured to be kaitiaki of art, narratives, histories and cultures. We value and care for our collections. We activate them and create paths of access for our audiences.
  • We value our wharenui as an open, inclusive and shared place of co-creation.

Kotahitanga
We unite to create more

  • We are united in seeing, feeling, and experiencing the world through art.
  • We move forward together with collective purpose, working cross-functionally to achieve success.
  • We communicate openly, honestly and clearly, planning and sharing feedback.
  • We support each other to create an environment of trust, integrity, confidence and care, respecting each other’s skills and perspectives.
Auaha
We are innovative and agile
  • We harness our creativity and skills to realise our purpose.
  • We innovate and experiment and are open to new and unexpected ideas.
  • We are responsive and adaptive to challenging and evolving conditions.
  • We share our diverse knowledge, capability and ideas in an environment of continuous improvement.
Hiranga
We strive for excellence
  • We are respectful, attentive and courageous as we strive for enriching experiences and encounters with art.
  • We collaborate across disciplines, expanding our thinking and encouraging discussion.
  • We provide multiple perspectives through our programme, collections and publishing.

Our Vision in practice