Chris Saines, Auckland, CNZM, for services to the arts
Mr Chris Saines is Director of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, a position he has held since 1996. He led the gallery’s $121 million development project, which opened in September 2011, and in 2004 convened a Foundation that raised $21 million towards the project. In 2009, he secured the largest-ever art gift to an Australasian public gallery – 15 masterworks by artists including Cézanne, Picasso and Matisse – valued at $115 million and promised to Auckland by Julian and Josie Robertson. He established the Auckland Triennial in 2001 and the Walters Prize in 2002. He developed major collection partnerships with the Chartwell Trust from 1997 and Thanksgiving Foundation from 1999. He has fostered research, internships and online publication of the collections and expanded family-friendly and learning-based programmes. He has worked for more than 30 years in leading galleries in Australia and New Zealand as a director, collection manager, educator and curator. He is an alumnus of the J Paul Getty Trust’s Museum Management Institute. He was a member of the Museums Australia National Council and inaugural Chair of Museums Aotearoa. He has been a member of Auckland’s Advisory Panel for Public Art since 2008, judged Australia’s largest sculpture prize in 2007, the McClelland Award, and was a member of the selection panel for New Zealand’s representation at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and 2003.