Rob Gardiner

Though he is now widely regarded nationally as a pre-eminent collector and generous patron, administering a charitable trust he established several decades ago, you may not know that Rob Gardiner was for many years associated with the Waikato Society of Arts, an exhibiting community that helped play a key role in the setting up of Hamilton’s public art gallery – now incorporated into the museum. His role grew out of the fact that he was a committed painter, steadily working since the sixties, rarely exhibiting, though constantly researching.