Ravenscar House Museum is an art museum in Central Christchurch, operated by the Canterbury Museum. It opened in November 2021 and exhibits the collection of Christchurch philanthropists and art collectors Jim and Susan Wakefield.
The Wakefields began collecting artworks in the late 1980s. In the mid-1990s, they built a home called Ravenscar House, named after a village near Susan Wakefield's birthplace in Yorkshire, England. The house was located on Whitewash Head in Scarborough, between Sumner and Taylors Mistake, on the northwest side of Banks Peninsula. The Wakefields intended to gift the house and its art to Christchurch City upon their passing, but it was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake. The couple decided to use the insurance payments on the house to fund the development of a new purpose-built gallery in Central Christchurch.
Christchurch City gifted land on Rolleston Avenue to the Ravenscar Trust in 2015 for the museum's construction. Patterson Associates designed the stunning modernist building with reflecting pools, vaulted ceilings, concrete panels, and extensive glass windows. The high roofs were intended to align with the Gothic forms of the nearby Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora and Canterbury Museum. Landscape architect Suzanne Turley designed the gardens.
The gallery is divided into several rooms, each representing a major room from the house. The artworks are quite eclectic, with paintings, sculptures, and antiquities. The NZ works include Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Frances Hodgkins, Charles Goldie, Garry Nash, and Paul Dibble. In addition to the artwork, designer furniture from the house is also featured.
There is a fee to enter the premises, and you can access the main internal garden. The museum is a beautiful adjunct to the nearby Art Gallery and Arts Centre. The Botanic Gardens is slightly to the south on the other side of Rolleston Avenue.
