Ruby: A 40 Year Love Affair with The Dowse showcases a selection of much loved highlights from the collection. It also acknowledges the vision of the six young men who took on the role of Dowse Director. Named for Mayor Percy Dowse and his wife Mary, The Dowse was part of a plan for ‘a progressive and contemporary city’. Significantly, it was Mary, and the Hutt Art Society, who championed the gallery but sadly neither Mary nor Percy Dowse lived to see the doors open.