In the 1930s it exhibited the works of “The Group”; a collection of artists including the eminent New Zealand painters Rita Angus, Evelyn Page and Doris Lusk.

A second neighbouring gallery, in the more conservatively favoured Venetian Gothic style, was added in 1894 by Richard Dacre Harman.

The purpose-built gallery is a major example of the 'Christchurch Style' of modernist buildings designed by Canterbury's avant-garde architects in the post-war period.

In the years following this move, the gallery thrived and was renowned for housing some of the most progressive and innovative exhibitions in New Zealand's history of art.

The CSA helped launch the careers of local New Zealand artists including Neil Dawson, Bruce Edgar, Ross Marwick, and Boyd Webb, who had their inaugural exhibitions there in June 1971.