29 May, 2026

Librarian fires up programme of events in Angela Morton Room

Welcoming space… Pippa Mothersole, Angela Morton Room librarian, sits in the arts annex upstairs at Takapuna Library, with a book she wrote on another local institution, Lake House Arts

Pippa Mothersole has been tasked with caring for a taonga of Takapuna Library and couldn’t be keener on the job.
As the librarian in charge of the library’s Angela Morton Room, she is looking to reactivate the first-floor dedicated art area and convince her bosses of its enduring value.
“Once people find this room they love it,” she says. “It’s a beautiful calm space, with natural light.”
The room houses books on art, photography, social history and Māori history, along with current art magazines. It is also the front for a nationally significant collection of art ephemera, magazine back copies and some rare books, kept archived, but available to researchers.
Once again, the room is being used to host exhibitions and events, with Mothersole working on an ambitious programme that stretches from poetry readings this month and next to a show next year, which will focus on New Zealand author Frank Sargeson, who lived on Esmonde Rd.
A recent exhibition of paintings by Devonport artist Janet Mazenier had the desired effect of drawing visitors and having library users pop their heads in for a look.
“I’m hopeful that as the profile gets raised we will get more people in the community to just come in and enjoy the space,” says Mothersole. For people who find going to galleries intimidating, the room is also an accessible entry point to art, she says. People can just call in for a quick look or linger should they choose.

The room is a remembrance of Takapuna arts enthusiast Angela Morton, set up with a bequest by her husband who lives locally and is in his eighties. “John still visits every week,” says Mothersole.
Other regular uses include a singing group that meets on Friday mornings and seniors who gather there for weekly brain gym sessions.
For Mothersole, it is a balance between carrying on a legacy, but also being given time to ensure the room is well used,.
“My ethos is we’re a community space in a community library,” she says.
After the previous passionate specialist librarian in charge of the room, Leanne Radojkovich, left several years ago, the exhibitions calendar fell into abeyance. Mothersole has brought visual arts display back and is looking to widen the scope, adding poetry readings this month. A collaboration in which four poets, including former New Zealand Poet Laureate Michele Leggott from Devonport, are matched with four artists will follow in July.
At the end of the year, Mothersole is looking to draw on past librarians, including long-serving Takapuna Head Librarian Helen Woodhouse, for help with displays and talks focusing on the library’s own heritage.
She has also been reaching out to the art community and schools to let them know about the art resource and encourage ideas. “I’m surviving on the enthusiasm and grace of other people,” she says, adding that she is no trained art expert.

But Mothersole is the author of a book published this year on the history of the Lake House, a commission that came after she volunteered at the local arts centre. This fittingly sits on the Angela Morton Room shelves, with further copies available for borrowing.
Having grown up on the North Shore, attending Westlake Girls High School, Mothersole returned after time away to live in Bayview with her young family. She has worked at Takapuna Library for three years, with her job falling under Auckland Council Libraries’ heritage team.
“I’ve been given time to see if we can make it work,” she says of retaining a dedicated room outside of the central library.
The focus on safeguarding the collection will remain. Mothersole says since her outreach, contributions have been made by around 50 people.

The collection already includes artists’ files, gallery ephemera and personal communications, from the likes of Colin McCahon to lesser known names. Its art reference collection runs to 7000 books, with an archive of rare books and artist titles.
Mothersole describes the room itself as unique in the Southern Hemisphere, in being a specialist arts resource that is free to the public and open seven days a week during library hours.
She is happy to see the space used for meetings and study groups.
The room itself is unstaffed, but any inquiries users have can be made to the library’s main counter downstairs.

• The next exhibition at the Angela Morton Room opens on 6 June. It is a deeply personal show by Belmont sculptor Debbie Laurence, exploring identity and her own journey with her mother’s dementia. The works are in clay inscribed with words.

Later in the month, the room will host a poetry afternoon followed by afternoon tea, scheduled for 2pm on Sunday 21 June.
Details of future events will be available on the library Facebook page. An Angela Morton Room Instagram has also been set up to help spread the word.

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