Many of us tend to wander past these works on our way to work with little more than a passing glance. They’ll be there tomorrow, right?
In 1996, Maribeth Coleman, an American who found herself living at the end of the world in Roseneath, began to notice all of this creativity while she commuted between her many volunteering roles in the community.
From this seed a project was created; to photograph and record as much of Wellington’s public art as possible. Over the following eight years Maribeth continued with her documentation, compiling her work into 10 hefty volumes, which she donated to the Central Library shortly before moving back to the United States.
The entire archive is worth a browse, but here’s some notable works which you might remember if you spent time in Wellington around 20 years ago. They’re now long gone; buildings demolished, murals painted over, old replaced with new.