Barbara Brooke
Barbara Brooke was a contemporary art dealer and partner in Gallery 91 and the Brooke Gifford Gallery in Christchurch. She was also the co-founder and co-editor of the art magazine Ascent from 1967 to 1969 and a key supporter and advocate for contemporary art and craft in New Zealand.Life and art career
Elsie Barbara Brooke was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, the daughter of Alexander and Mary Anne Brown. In 1945, she married André Brooke, an artist who had emigrated to New Zealand from Hungary. In the 1960s she began to be known as Barbara Brooke.In January 1960, André and Barbara Brooke were jointly appointed as Secretary Manager of the Canterbury Society of Arts. The reaction from the artworld was enthusiastic, “one-man shows and other exhibitions by small groups of artists will inevitably result in a change of emphasis”. The couple brought to the CSA's Canterbury Society of Arts Durham Street premises a range of younger artists and initiated high-profile exhibitions such as the Hay's Limited Art Competition. André Brooke resigned from the position in 1963 and Barbara was appointed as the sole Secretary Manager of the Canterbury Society of Arts. She remained in the job for the next two years with early work on planning for the construction of a new building for the CSA.After leaving the CSA, in 1966 Barbara Brooke was employed part-time at Caxton Press to edit the New Zealand Local Government Magazine. The following year, at the suggestion of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, Leo Bensemann and Brooke started up a new magazine for contemporary art, Ascent. For the first two issues Brooke is listed as ‘assistant editor’ but by issue three she is noted as co-editor alongside Bensemann. Ross Fraser reviewed the first issue in Landfall. Push the writers “extend” them with critical writers who also provide feedback – positive or otherwise – to our artists. Five issues of Ascent were published before it closed in 1969. The following October Barbara Brooke and André Brooke were divorced and he left New Zealand to live in Tahiti.In 1972, Brooke helped open Christchurch's first craft market with Judy Gifford and others. The Mollet Street Market was located at 601B Colombo Street and described itself as a ‘craft-display workshop with gear on sale to the public.’ The success of the market was over-shadowed when the Retail Shop Assistants’ Union took Brooke and her co-workers to court on the grounds of staff having to work in the week-ends” Brooke helped start a partition to allow the market to continue and eventually managed win an exemption via the courts. Brooke also demonstrated her engagement in local politics when she stood for and was appointed to the Christchurch Transport Board where she served from 1975 to 1978.Essential reading
Petrena Fishburn Barbara Brooke: A Trend-Setting Art Professional in New Zealand 1959-1980. This thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts in Art History at the University of Canterbury 2014. Fishburn's thesis covers all aspects of Brooke's working career in detail. You can .