He's male model material – tall and lean, TV good looks and buffed to the ‘nth degree'.

Karl Chitham, the new director of the Tauranga Art Gallery, has just stepped out of a Barkers ad and descended the sweeping atrium staircase in a male model way. He commanded those stairs.

New man at the helm, art gallery director Karl Chitham. Photo by Bruce Barnard.

'After just five days in the job I can't say much about the way forward, but I want to make this gallery a destination.”

He's talking art galleries.

'The main drive for us is to connect with people through art.”

But I am talking style because that's the first thing that hits you. Rakish in a deep navy shirt, natty fitted grey jacket, painted-on designer jeans which are turned up cheekily over the suede shoes. He wears it well.

But isn't a ‘real' gallery director a muttering old man in an ill-fitting suit, plaid waistcoat, pince-nez and liberal dusting of dandruff? Not a 42-year-old fashion statement.

'No, it's not a managerial look,” assures the new director. 'But I am certainly managerial.”

He wants to talk art galleries and visions. I want to pursue the chic-ness.

'I hate getting my photograph taken.” Karl adjusts his jacket and works the camera with style. I suspect this man will work the gallery with the same inimitable style, and it will be one this city will enjoy and be proud of.

'There's always an element of surprise when you apply for a job and get it.” But we perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. He's all ticketed with a degree in visual arts and masters in fine arts.

'I was a sculptor in a previous life.” He was a curator of art in a more recent life at Rotorua Museum, but this is his first directorial post.

'What comes with that is enthusiasm and drive. Once I get my head around it there will be a really strong vision.” Aspects of that vision are already morphing and taking shape.

'There's a lot of disconnect with art, a lot of people who wouldn't go to a gallery.”

The ones who think galleries are stuffy and static?

'Yes, those who don't feel comfortable in a gallery and don't see the value them. I will show them what a gallery is and give them a feel and an experience that will make them want to come back.”

How?

'Sometimes it's the behind the scenes stuff, sometimes the interactive displays and sometimes it's the programmes such as artists talks and live performances. It all depends on the stories we are telling.”

Those stories, he hopes, will also pull in the punters off the cruise liners, the ones who like VB, stubbies and jandals, and are leaking to Rotorua.

'We will give them local content, stuff they can't or won't see anywhere else. We will give them a reason to stay in town.”

By local he doesn't just mean Tauranga – he's looking offshore. The Chitham vision has already gone global.

'It might be artists who have left the district and are doing amazing things in Melbourne or New York. We will bring them home to reconnect with this place and do some exciting projects with them.”

He's also looking just beyond the Kaimais and Karangahake Gorge in the mid-term. 'In a few years I aim to see people from Auckland, Wellington and Sydney coming to Tauranga to see the gallery.”

Tauranga Art Gallery is not a collecting institution, there isn't the room, but it does boast a holding of works by Edward Bullmore.

'He's one of many artists who were significant in their time and then fell off the map.”

There are also major collections by Nigel Brown and Robin White, also celebrated New Zealand artists.

'Their artwork is an asset, they're valuable works. But it's the education programmes, the education team that's getting huge numbers of people through the doors each year.”

While The Weekend Sun is in the atrium, another horde of schoolkids traipses out. No, they haven't just been dragged through a mausoleum against their will. There's excitement and chatter. They have obviously just had a new experience of an art kind.

And the woman who is seeing them off in Maori with Geordie overtones has made the connection that Karl talks about. They might just want to come back.

'Again and again and again is what we are aiming for. A recurrent audience.”

That's Karl Chitham director, but is Karl Chitham also the entrepreneur and businessman? Can he, will he, make the gallery more self-sustaining because it costs the ratepayer the thick end of a million dollars a year.

'The Tauranga Art Gallery is less of a drain on the local economy than most other galleries around New Zealand because more than half the budget is self-funded.”

No, he hasn't considered the proposal to merge the gallery with a new museum on Cliff Road but 'Yes, I would like to be part of that conversation.”

And that underscores what Karl told the interview panel.

'I am 100 per cent honest. I am not going to play games. And that transparency is something people value.”

He applied for the job partly because of the standing and reputation of the Tauranga Art Gallery.

'It is an amazing institution. I wanted to be a part of it. My background is contemporary art and craft, and I think we will be a very good fit.”