In 2025, Te Papa acquired four watercolours by the nineteenth-century British artist Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming (1837–1924). Over summer, art history lecturer Dr Victoria Munn, and student and artist, Catherine Shone, brought new light to bear on Gordon-Cumming’s artistic practice and process. Who was Constance Gordon-Cumming? Constance Gordon-Cumming (1837–1924) was aRead more
Did you know that there were a lot of women photographers in Aotearoa New Zealand before 1960? To mark this year’s International Women’s Day tomorrow, and its theme ‘inspire inclusion’, Photography Curator Lissa Mitchell introduces some of them and their stories. So what kind of photography did women make? ForRead more
This year for Kiribati Language Week 2021 (11–17 July) we put the spotlight on the recent acquisition, Otintaai, a female I-Kiribati climate change warrior. Curator Rachel Yates introduces the master weavers and some of the speeches from the welcoming ceremony in May 2021. Read more
I recently delivered a paper on the New Zealand sculptor Margaret Butler (1883-1947) at the University of Otago conference, ‘Making Women Visible’. Although one or two of her sculptures are occasionally exhibited, she is next to invisible to the wide public, certainly far more obscure than her older contemporary FrancesRead more
