Who are Te Papa’s curators? How are their roles defined? What are their areas of expertise? How do they approach their work? What are their interests and passions?
Don’t miss this Sunday afternoon series showcasing Te Papa’s vibrant and diverse team …
Sunday 7 September, 4pm–6pm
Chelsea Nichols: Representations of Melancholy and Illness in art
Mark Stocker: A Window into the Soul: Neo-Romanticism
Sunday 14 September, 4pm–6pm
Lissa Mitchell: Ongoing Moments – Collecting Historical Photography.
Athol McCredie: Life was their Subject: New Zealand Personal Documentary Photography 1965-1975
Justine Olsen: Unpacking John Crichton – From Collecting to Exhibiting
Sunday 21 September, 4pm–6pm
Rebecca Rice: Lindauer’s Maori at Home and Abroad
Megan Tamati-Quennell: Unsettling the line – The Relationship of Customary and Contemporary Māori art
Chelsea Nichols
Chelsea Nichols is Curator Modern Art. An art historian, her collection-based research addresses the relationships between international and New Zealand modern art in the period 1900 to 1970. A particular area of interest is in histories of collecting and museum display, especially the curious overlaps between art and other disciplines.
Current research includes: the relationship between art and natural history exhibitions; the influence of Surrealism on New Zealand art; and representations of the body in modern visual culture.
Recently she successfully defended her PhD thesis at the University of Oxford.
Mark Stocker
Curator Historical International Art, Mark Stocker‘s expertise is in European art from 1750 to 1950, as well as New Zealand related art from 1890 to the 1970s.
Previously Associate Professor in Art History at the University of Otago, his publications have focused mostly on public monuments, sculpture and numismatics (especially coin and medal designs).
Current research is diverse: a book essay on the carving of Queen Victoria in Ohinemutu, near Rotorua; and a case study of The Virgin in a Condom, particularly its theological implications, co-authored with Professor Murray Rae, University of Otago.
Lissa Mitchell
Lissa Mitchell is Curator Historical Documentary Photography. Her research is on photography made during the colonial period and how it relates to the present day.
Specific areas of research include: the depiction of children in historical photography; crime and colonial photography; early women photographers; and photographic histories in the southern region.
Athol McCredie
Te Papa’s Curator Photography is Athol McCredie. His expertise is in New Zealand photography, particularly 1940 to the present.
Current research includes: the history of the museum’s photography collection; photographs of Māori and their treatment by the museum; and personal documentary photography of the 1960s and 1970s.
Justine Olsen
Curator Decorative Art & Design is Justine Olsen Her work with Auckland Museum and more latterly Te Papa has been supported by study in England and America.
Her interest lies in New Zealand and its relationship to European and American design with current research work focusing on the impact of modernism in New Zealand.
Rebecca Rice
Rebecca Rice, Curator Historical New Zealand Art, is an art historian who specialises in this country’s colonial art.
She is interested in New Zealand’s representation at international exhibitions, particularly through the displays of fine art, photography and ethnographic artefacts, as well as how artists used these exhibitions to promote their own practice.
Current research includes: the art produced during the New Zealand Wars of the nineteenth century; and the impact of impressionism on New Zealand artists at home and abroad.
Megan Tamati-Quennell
Megan Tamati-Quennell is Curator Modern and Contemporary Māori and Indigenous Art.
She has specialist interests in: the work of the post-war (1945), first-generation Māori artists, mana wahine; Māori women artists of the 1970s and 1980s, the ‘Māori Internationals’; the artists who developed with the advent of biculturalism, a postmodern construct peculiar to New Zealand; and global indigenous art with particular focus on modern and contemporary indigenous art in Australia, Canada and the United States.
Sarah Farrar
A further presentation (details yet to be arranged) will be given by Sarah Farrar, Acting Senior Curator Art, Curator Contemporary Art. Sarah is currently in England on a Clark Collections scholarship and we will hear about her experiences and impressions on her return.
She has a particular interest in examining exhibition histories and the social reception of contemporary art.
Her current research projects include: examining historical and contemporary approaches to art collection displays; and exploring innovative approaches to art education and interpretation. In addition to her work at Te Papa, Sarah is a PhD candidate at Monash University, Melbourne.