Public Art and Publicly Accessible Art in Wellington; including sculptures, murals, monuments, plaques, and installations. 

An index to public artworks in Wellington compiled by Maribeth S. Coleman.

Born in the United States, Maribeth Coleman moved to Wellington in the mid-1980s with her Kiwi-born husband following his retirement from the University of Illinois. She describes how "for me it was like moving to the end of the world", but the couple quickly found their place in the capital. Feeling that that the city’s public art deserved to be better documented and celebrated, from 1996 Maribeth began photographing hundreds of artworks from across the city and gathering as much information as she could about each piece and artist. These entries were arranged and collated into ring binders which she donated in stages to Wellington City Libraries.  

Her collection of over 600 photographs is a snapshot of Wellington’s streetscape at the turn of the century. Public Art was becoming increasingly popular, in part because many councils had begun funding specialised art projects to combat graffiti and to beautify outdoor spaces. Local examples include the Wellington City Council’s Arts Bonus Scheme which encouraged developers to fund publicly viewable art in exchange for receiving planning permission to add extra floors to their high-rise buildings. Art in Carparks established in 2000 was another council-funded scheme that paid local and international artists to paint murals in the James Smith and Lombard Street carpark buildings. Her definition of ‘public art’ was wide (probably more so than other art enthusiasts of the time) and her interest extended beyond sculpture & murals to include memorials, plaques, pou, and installations.

While many of the works included in Coleman’s index remain in situ, a significant number have been moved from their original positions or have disappeared completely since the photographs were taken. Murals in particular tend to have less permanence as they fade over time and are painted over, or the buildings on which they were located were demolished.

Following the passing of her husband in 2004, Maribeth left Wellington shortly after completing this project and returned to the United States where she now lives in retirement. With her permission, we have digitised her work making it text- searchable for the first time. As the index was largely created before the wide-spread availability of high-speed internet which limited research options, where possible we have filled in gaps regarding artist or provenance details.

Art forms                        

Fountains
Memorials                           
Murals                         
Paintings                       
Plaques 
Pou                         
Sculptures
   

Hunga mahi toi (Māori artists)

Subject headings from Ngā Upoko Tukutuku have been used to group Māori artists and art forms, as well as iwi and hapū relating to the artists – you can either use the search function to find iwi and Hapū or click on the related link within a record to see other artists and their works.

                    Hunga Mahi Toi

How to use this index

Use the search function on the left side-pane to search individual artists, artworks, artwork types and other relevant keywords. Once submitted search results can then be filtered to only show items from this collection.

Subject headings from Ngā Upoko Tukutuku have also been used to identify iwi and hapū relating to the artists – you can either use the search function to find these or click on the Iwi/Hapū link within a record to see other related records.

Both the artwork index records and majority of the content within them remain under copyright. Check our copyright statement and usage guidelines at the bottom of this page for further information on how this index can be used.