"We're like a petri dish for growing new ideas in visual culture," she said yesterday, her last day.
"The Blue Oyster exists to encourage, foster and promote innovative contemporary art projects in, or from, Dunedin and to broaden interest and understanding of experimental contemporary art.
"It's a laboratory for experimentation; a space for artists to develop professionally.
"It's a place for audiences to see alternative artistic practices and an advocate for the Dunedin visual arts scene."
Ms Parkinson has been managing the gallery for the past two years, after moving to Dunedin from the New Zealand Arts Foundation in Wellington.
"Creative New Zealand only funds a few galleries nationally in this league.
"Dunedin is privileged to have a dedicated gallery where artists and audiences of experimental art can meet for free.
"Without a space for discussion and experimentation, art would lose its social meaning and inherent value.
"The innovation and novelty that makes art such a desirable commodity would be smothered by the demands of the market if it had no other space to grow.
"The two are bound together."
Exhibition highlights included "The Asian" by Simon Kaan, "Incredibly Hot Sex With Hideous People" by Bryce Galloway and "Polytears" by Anna Muirhead.
"Dunedin has a wonderful arts community that is really under-appreciated and [under] valued.
"There are some extraordinary artists working here," she said.
"Personal coups include Jodie Salmond's public sculpture Hopes for the Future, which had a long period of administrative gestation and the establishment of our monthly discussions on contemporary art, the Blue Oyster Sessions."
Ms Parkinson is leaving Dunedin to live in Ottawa, Canada, with her fiance, who has taken a computer programming position with the Canadian Government.
She will be succeeded at the Blue Oyster by Christchurch arts graduate and reviewer Jamie Hanton (27), who starts on January 25.
