Dowse Art Museum

Wellington


A beacon of culture and delight, the excellent Dowse is worth visiting for its jaunty architecture alone. It’s a family-friendly, accessible art museum showcasing NZ art, craft and design, with a good cafe to boot. The only permanent showcase is a carved Māori pataka (traditional raised storehouse). It's a 20-minute drive, 30-minute ride on bus 83 or 91, or a short train trip from central Wellington.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Wellington attractions

1. Petone Settlers Museum

1.74 MILES

Built for the centenary of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1940, this gorgeous little art-deco building on the shell-strewn Petone foreshore contains a fun and…

2. Katherine Mansfield House & Garden

7.63 MILES

Often compared to Chekhov and Maupassant, Katherine Mansfield was one of NZ’s most distinguished authors, who pushed the short-story form to uncharted…

3. Weta Workshop

7.74 MILES

Academy Award–winning special-effects and props company Weta Workshop has been responsible for bringing the likes of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit,…

4. Old St Paul's

7.84 MILES

Designed by Rev Fred Thatcher, the first vicar of Wellington, this wonderfully woody former Anglican cathedral (1866) is well worth a look. Despite its…

5. Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

7.94 MILES

Ngā Taonga is a vortex of NZ moving images into which you could get sucked for days. Its library holds tens of thousands of titles: feature films,…

6. National Library of New Zealand

7.95 MILES

As well as being a wonderful resource for researchers, the National Library has various exhibition spaces including the Turnbull Gallery, displaying rare…

7. Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

7.98 MILES

At 88m long and 18m high, this modern Anglican cathedral exudes quasi-Moorish architectural vibes inside its lofty interiors. It first opened its doors in…

8. New Zealand Parliament

8.05 MILES

New Zealand might be a young country but it has one of the oldest continuously functioning parliaments in the world and has chalked up more than its share…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "new-zealand/wellington/attractions/dowse-art-museum/a/poi-sig/1172853/362813",
      "destination": "Wellington",
      "continent": "Australia-&-Pacific",
      "country": "New-Zealand",
      "city": "Wellington",
      "position": "superzone"
    }