The Arts Centre

Tuesday 7 June 2011: I spent a couple of lovely evenings earlier in the year wandering around the empty walkways and quadrangles of the Arts Centre, exploring the rabbit warren that is home to Christchurch's artistic community. Now these buildings, like most in the CBD, are off limits to both the general public and their former tenants. The Observatory lies in ruins and many more of the Arts Centre's historic structures are seriously compromised or on the ground. Only one, my friend's new gallery, has been green-stickered. No doubt there will be much debate over the whys and wherefores of restoration in the months and years to come. I have it on good authority that each fragment of the Observatory has been numbered and put away for safekeeping in anticipation of a rebuild at some point in the future. Here's hoping...very, very much.