McCahon House

General information

The McCahon House Project embraces and celebrates the past, the present and the future of New Zealand Art.

In the kauri-clad foothills of the Waitakere Ranges sits a little red bach where Colin McCahon lived and worked from 1953 to 1960. The bach, in French Bay on the Manukau Harbour was carefully restored and opened to the public as an award winning museum and interpretive centre in late 2006.

Next door, high in the canopy of the bush, is a treehouse residency and artists studio designed by Pete Bossley. Each year the Trust welcomes three talented New Zealand Artists to live and work in the bespoke apartment and studio. The artists are surrounded by the sights and sounds of the bush, birds and Kauri as well as the very real sense of the history and importance of New Zealand art.

There is now an alumni of 14 artists who have had the chance to live and work in the natural and historic environment that surrounds the McCahon House.