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Living Halls

Fiona Jack, December 2011
Published by Clouds & Govett-Brewster Art Gallery
Edited by Gwynneth Porter

Living Halls represents the findings of an ambitious research project undertaken by Fiona Jack based in the study and cataloguing of New Zealand war memorial halls. Following the Second World War, government funds were made available for communities to plan and apply for support for memorial halls. Hundreds of these buildings, in what became a vernacular tradition, now form a chain of public space the length of the country. Jack has compiled a list of all extant halls and worked with people living in proximity to the halls to provide paintings of them. She has also made drawings herself based on the original applications made by communities now kept in the National Archives. Living Halls includes writing by Govett-Brewster Director Rhana Devenport, historians Bill McKay and Georgina White, fiction by Los Angeles writer Janet Sarbanes and a discussion by Jack with artists Sam Durant and Tom Nicholson.

The publication has been made possible with support from the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries (NICAI) Research Development Fund and Jenny Todd. The publication has received major funding from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts Research Fund.

Text courtesy of → Clouds Publishing

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