William Handley Milbank (25 October 1948 – 4 November 2023) was a New Zealand art curator and gallery director. He served as the director of the

Sarjeant Gallery The Sarjeant Gallery at Pukenamu, Queen's Park Whanganui is a regional art museum with a collection of international and New Zealand art. It was closed for 10 years for redevelopment and re-opened on Saturday 9 November 2024. In 2024 it was anno ...

Whanganui Whanganui, also spelt Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whanganui is ...

for 27 years, between 1978 and 2006.

Early life and education

William Handley Milbank was born in

Raetihi Raetihi, a small town in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, is located at the junction of New Zealand state highway network, State Highways 4 and 49 in the Manawatū-Whanganui region. It lies in a valley between Tongariro National Park, ...

, New Zealand, on 25 October 1948, the son of Bill and Hazel Milbank. He was a direct descendant of John Handley, chairman of the first Whanganui Town Board. He attended Ruapehu College in

Ohakune Ohakune is a small town at the southern end of Tongariro National Park, close to the southwestern slopes of the active volcano Mount Ruapehu, in the North Island of New Zealand. A rural service town known as New Zealand's Carrot Capital, Ohaku ...

where he was taught by art teacher Stan Frost. He initially worked on the family farm before moving to

to find work as a draughtsman, starting out as a builder's labourer until he secured a position as a draughtsman for the town planning department of the then Wanganui City Council, where he remained for seven years.

Sarjeant Gallery

Milbank started work at the

in 1975 as an exhibition technician, working for the Sarjeant's first Director,

Gordon H. Brown Gordon Harold Brown (12 April 1931 – 16 March 2025) was a New Zealand art historian, curator, and artist. Early life and education Brown was born in Wellington on 12 April 1931, the son of Gwynneth and Cecil Harold Brown. He was educated a ...

. After Brown's resignation in 1977, Milbank was acting director and then applied for the position of director. He was the director of the

from 1978 to 2006. In that time he consolidated the relationship that saw the Sarjeant Gallery become the custodians of the

Edith Collier Edith Marion Collier (28 March 1885 – 12 December 1964) was an early modern painter from New Zealand. Biography Brought up and educated in Whanganui, Collier received a thorough although conservative art education studying at the Technical S ...

Trust collection. In 1986, Milbank helped establish the Sarjeant Gallery's

Tylee Cottage Residency The Tylee Cottage Residency is an artist-in-residence programme facilitated by the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, New Zealand. The scheme began in 1986 as a partnership between the Sarjeant Gallery, the Wanganui District Council and the QEII Art ...

programme. He helped tour a number of exhibitions nationally and internationally, including ''Seven Maori Artists'', which toured Australia in 1980, and ''Distance Looks Our Way'', which went to Spain in 1992. He is noted for his support of contemporary Māori art, he acquired significant holdings of contemporary photography for the gallery's collection, and he oversaw a series of significant installations in the gallery's central dome area, including a 1988 installation by sculptor Andrew Drummond. In 2022, a special exhibition was held at the Sarjeant Gallery to acknowledge strengths in the Sarjeant collection that were developed under Milbank's leadership.

Art sector leadership

Milbank became chairman of the New Zealand Art Gallery Directors' Guild in 1978. In 1979 he became the vice-president of the Art Galleries and Museum Association, later becoming its chairman. From 1996, he was on the advisory committee for the Quay School of the Arts' Fine Arts Degree. He was an appointee to the government's Cultural Conservation Advisory Council and was on the advisory committee for the planning of the newly formed national museum,

Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa (Māori language, Māori for 'Waka huia, the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the Nation ...

, which opened in 1998. After his time at the Sarjeant Gallery, at the beginning of 2007 Milbank established his own consultancy and private gallery in Whanganui, the W.H. Milbank Gallery. In February 2011, having moved the gallery from its former home on Taupo Quay, he reopened it in a former Druid's Hall on Bell Street. Milbank died on 4 November 2023.

Honours

In the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours, Milbank was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The King's Service Order () established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant of Queen regnant, Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to t ...

for community service.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milbank, Bill 1948 births 2023 deaths People from Raetihi People from Whanganui Companions of the Queen's Service Order New Zealand art curators Directors of museums in New Zealand