Te Whare Hēra

Te Whare Hēra Te Whare Hēra Artist Residency is a partnership between Massey University and Wellington City Council

In 2014 Whiti o Rehua School of Art launched a new International Artist Residency Programme in Wellington. This non-commercial initiative run by Massey University’s Te Whiti o Rehua School of Art and the Wellington City Council is designed to bring contemporary international artists to live, work and exhibit in Wellington city. Resident artists to date have included Christian Thompson, Sasha Huber

and Petri Saarikko, Martín Sastre, Etienne de France, Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet, Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, Soraya Rhofir, Tom Dale and from November 2017 Yuka Oyama. Artists are granted an impressive live-work studio suite on Wellington harbour within the Willis Bond & Co prestigious Clyde Quay Wharf Development. Residencies run for a 4-6 month period, the first having commenced late 2014. The objectives of the programme are to:
�stimulate the production of high quality, innovative, creative work in Wellington, which can be shared with Wellingtonians and visitors to the city
�reinforce Wellington as a visual arts leader; and a place where contemporary art is more widely recognised and debated
�make a real difference to the cultural lives of our community
�partner with sector colleagues to enable the best opportunities for the resident artist’s work to be experienced by audiences. The 2016 International Artist Residency programme is supported by Massey University through College of Creative Arts and Te Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Wellington City Council, and in kind support from generous project partners. For 2017 onwards, additional support is welcomed and we look forward to discussing details and benefits with interested parties. To receive invites to our public events, become friends with Te Whare Hēra. Email [email protected] with 'sub tewhareherafriends' in the subject line.

Artist Talk Announcement:Listening to Land as the Body: on aurality, sonic ecology, place, and transformationPlease join...
05/09/2026

Artist Talk Announcement:

Listening to Land as the Body: on aurality, sonic ecology, place, and transformation

Please join Te Whare Hēra artist in residence, Sorawit Songsataya for an artist talk at Te Papa Tongarewa, in the Reading Room on Level 4, 4pm Tuesday 8th September.

Sorawit will be presenting their recent audio/visual research components, and past works center around Ōamaru limestone––an important entity that has led the artist to investigate the acoustic and sonic realms through their artistic practice since late 2019. In addition to this, Sorawit will share their ongoing sculptural and filmic work, Listening device (2024–), a continuing series that explore and engage with modes of listening to the rhythmic contours of the land, inquiring and contemplating ways to listen with the body and to hear the inaudible through a tactile sonic experience that aims to blur the boundaries between biology, geography, and ecology.

Tuesday 8th September, 4pm
The Reading Room, Level 4, Te Papa Tongarewa
Free and open to all.

With deepest thanks to our wonderful friends and supporters at Te Papa Tongarewa, Curator Contemporary Art Hanahiva Rose, and Curator Historical New Zealand Art Rebecca Rice, and colleagues who so generously host this for us.

Image
Sorawit Songsataya. Image still from Listening Device, Hanoi, 2025

ss_instagrm Te Papa Massey University Toi Rauwhārangi | Massey University Massey Fine Arts Wellington City Council Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

New Te Whare Hēra artist-in-residence. Welcome to Sorawit Songsataya, Walters Prize Nominee 2027. Te Whare Hēra are exci...
02/09/2026

New Te Whare Hēra artist-in-residence. Welcome to Sorawit Songsataya, Walters Prize Nominee 2027.

Te Whare Hēra are excited to announce and welcome our September artist in residence, Thai-New Zealand artist and Walters Prize nominee for 2027, Sorawit Songsataya. This residency is in collaboration with Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery.

Songsataya will be engaging with local emerging artists, curators and conservators, and presenting a public talk and a workshop. Participants in a special filming session will contribute to the generation of new works for the Walters Prize.

Working across 3D animation, moving image, sculpture, site-responsive installation, and sound to explore the complex relationship between places and experiences; the artist draws from material cultures, situated knowledge and ecological belief systems. This residency is an exciting opportunity for our creative community to learn and connect with one of our country’s most innovative contemporary artists.

Thanks to Abby Cunnane and Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery for partnering with us for this residency, and to Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Te Papa Wellington City Council Toi Rauwhārangi | Massey University Massey Fine Arts Massey University and the many good folk who are engaging with this residency.

Find out more about Sorawit Songsataya through the Te Whare Hēra artist residency website: https://www.tewharehera.ac.nz/artists/sorawit-songsataya

ss_instagrm

We photobook fans are almost recovered from an epic extended weekend of talks and workshops and the incredible Photobook...
17/08/2026

We photobook fans are almost recovered from an epic extended weekend of talks and workshops and the incredible Photobook Fair 2026. Thanks to all of the organising committee who worked so hard to bring us all of the events, and who brought us our resident for part of August - Martha Naranjo Sandoval.

Martha is is a Brooklyn-based visual artist, photographer, publisher, and cataloger from Mexico City. Her work focuses on the family album as means of creating community around photography.
She is the founder and director of the editorial project Matarile Ediciones, which publishes work by artists who are immigrants or part of a recent diaspora.

Martha gave an epic keynote speech at the Photobook Fair, taking us through her photographic practice, and the formation and publication of Small Death - a work that collects images made by the artist over her first years living in New York after emigrating from Mexico City. Her work is extraordinary - intimate, tactile and iterative. She moves between streetscapes, n**e self portraiture, found imagery, and loving pictures of her family. We discovered Martha’s process for curating the book, and learned about the significance of sequencing, and the black frames that show her transition between one place and another. If you want to purchase Small Death, you can still get it via publisher Mack:
https://www.mackpublishing.au/products/small-death-martha-naranjo-sandoval

Thanks for bringing your thoughtful and excellent mahi to our city, Martha. You and Dylan are both part of our forever family now.

photobooknz Toi Rauwhārangi | Massey University Massey Photography Martha Naranjo Sandoval Wellington City Council

In the quiet after somebody passes, there is time to reflect on their life, the impact of their presence and contributio...
17/08/2026

In the quiet after somebody passes, there is time to reflect on their life, the impact of their presence and contribution, and the loss we continue to feel. We would like to honour and remember our Te Whare Hēra alumnus Christine Borland, who passed away on 19th July. Christine was part of a residency with her collaborator and friend Cat Auburn, between July and September 2024. Christine and Cat created an utterly beautiful and thoughtful exhibition titled Approaching Home at Aratoi Art Gallery and Museum in Masterton, curated by Sarah McClintock. In Approaching Home the artists  focused on carefully chosen materials, - flax, linen, harakeke - processes and iterative works to introduce and question the concept of ‘home’ through shared colonial histories, ecological pathways and endangered making traditions. We learned so much from these artists, about the possibilities of international exchange, moving beyond conventional boundaries of institutional knowledge generation. 

Christine demonstrated the power of friendship, knowledge sharing; and leveraging craft, making and autotheoretical art practices. Her commitment to the exhibition project even as she was unable to travel because of her illness, was a testament to her character. During the residency we were so blessed with the online artist talk that she and Cat gave our community.

Her death is a profound loss, but her cross-disciplinary work in art, science, medicine, archives and museums is a legacy we can continue to draw from. You can visit Christine’s work through her website, including the documented exhibition here: https://www.christineborland.com/approaching-home 

Our thoughts are with her family and friends in Scotland and beyond. We add our gratitude to the chorus of voices who remember how remarkable Christine was, and look to her life’s work as an inspiration and an example.

Cat Auburn Toi Rauwhārangi | Massey University Massey Fine Arts Wellington City Council Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History Sarah McClintock

We had the most wonderful launch for Gabby O’Connor’s installation at Wellington Railway Station last night. Reflect, re...
31/07/2026

We had the most wonderful launch for Gabby O’Connor’s installation at Wellington Railway Station last night. Reflect, return is up for the next fortnight, publicly visible as you traverse the concourse of the station. Gabby was joined by a large group of friends and supporters, and we were led by Kurt Smith-Komene who gave a karakia and the most incredible history of place, situating this work in its context of geographical, political and cultural change. Thanks so much to Kurt for this wonderful beginning, and to Jason from Urban Dream Brokerage, Teresa Ng from Kiwirail, Shaun Waugh from Massey, and so many of our brilliant and generous colleagues and friends from institutions and organisations that align with our mahi. Get along to the station to see reflect, return if you can - you have until 14th August to experience this return of water to the site.

Gabby O'Connor Wellington City Council Massey University Massey Fine Arts Toi Rauwhārangi | Massey University University of Auckland Urban Dream Brokerage KiwiRail

The preparation for reflect, return comes as a result of many years of investigation of the ocean, life in Pōneke, and a...
28/07/2026

The preparation for reflect, return comes as a result of many years of investigation of the ocean, life in Pōneke, and an intensive two months of residency immersion for Gabby O’Connor at Te Whare Hēra. Gabby, pictured here, is highly experimental, working with diverse mediums to investigate her response to the place she is situated. The result is elegant, sensory, and entirely reflective of her environment in residence.

We’re so excited that she has been able to collaborate with many people from science, art and education fields in her time with us, and this project being installed at Wellington Railway Station is made possible particularly through the generosity of Urban Dream Brokerage - Thanks so much to Jason who facilitated this brilliant opportunity, and to Kiwirail for making space for artists at a time when we’re working so hard to maintain visibility in this economic climate.

Come and join us for the launch at 5pm Thursday, and be sure to visit the work in the coming fortnight as you travel through the city.

Gabby O'Connor University of Auckland Urban Dream Brokerage KiwiRail Massey University Massey Fine Arts Toi Rauwhārangi | Massey University Wellington City Council

Artist, researcher, educator and Antarctican, Dr Gabby O’Connor is the current artist-in-residence at Te Whare Hēra. Her...
26/07/2026

Artist, researcher, educator and Antarctican, Dr Gabby O’Connor is the current artist-in-residence at Te Whare Hēra. Her latest work reflect, return is a video installation, housed at Wellington Railway Station, in the site previously occupied by the New World Metro supermarket. O’Connor has been contemplating the site from her two-month residency studio, across the harbour at Clyde Quay Wharf.  Looking across the body of water to that station, she considers the waters that are between (and underneath) Te Whare Hēra and the station site, which, prior to the 1855 earthquake, was more water than station.

Recent works by O’Connor have looked into the many transformations that Wellington has undergone as it has become a city. She draws upon the earliest visual cultural records, artefacts, maps and drawings, of coastlines - land edges - to imagine the histories hidden underneath and behind our city infrastructure, but she can’t get way from the omnipresence of water.

The station installation, titled reflect, return, reveals a video, recorded at night, inky black with dancing flecks of white. Available light bounces off the textures of the waves, crests and edges of water. This is both an immediate sensory presence, and an echo of historic geography, reminding the viewer about the passage of time, and the importance of remembering.

This video projection artwork is made possible with support from Kiwirail, Urban Dream Brokerage, University of Auckland, Massey University, Wellington City Council, and Te Whare Hēra.

Gabby O'Connor Massey Fine Arts Massey University Toi Rauwhārangi | Massey University Wellington City Council KiwiRail Urban Dream Brokerage University of Auckland

Last week, our wonderful artist in residence, Dr Gabby O’Connor invited a class from Roseneath School to visit for a wor...
06/07/2026

Last week, our wonderful artist in residence, Dr Gabby O’Connor invited a class from Roseneath School to visit for a workshop at the Collab-Lab at Te Whare Hēra gallery space. The students were amazing - so engaged, and asking such excellent thought-provoking questions, as they explored the intersection of art and science through responses to the ocean. We were so lucky to also hear from Dr Craig Stevens, who is a Principal Scientist (Marine Physics) for NIWA, and who gave a presentation about the salinity and layers of our sea. I think everyone, adults and kids alike, learned more than they ever dreamed possible during the workshop, and everyone came away with a renewed passion for the care of our oceans, and creatively full from the Lightbox generation of our own ocean strata. Gabby shared about her art practice in a way that was approachable, rich and creatively expansive. This artist is collaborating and sharing her residency time in ways that we haven’t seen in most practices, and it’s absolutely exciting to see what she’ll come up with next. There are plans afoot for a public installation in Wellington soon - watch this space!

This brilliant artist, Dr Gabby O’Connor, is awash in a sea of blue luminosity at Te Whare Hēra. The mahi she is engagin...
18/06/2026

This brilliant artist, Dr Gabby O’Connor, is awash in a sea of blue luminosity at Te Whare Hēra. The mahi she is engaging in there is excitingly varied, - science and experience based, and she has found a brilliant output to be revealed later in the residency. We’re loving having the space activated by colour and tools and the wonderful Gabby. Watch this space for further developments.

We’re delighted to announce our new artist in residence for June and July. Dr Gabby O’Connor, transdisciplinary research...
02/06/2026

We’re delighted to announce our new artist in residence for June and July. Dr Gabby O’Connor, transdisciplinary researcher, Antarctican, science communicator and educator will be inhabiting the Te Whare Hēra studio space, working on projects that intersect with Wellington Harbour, its history and the state of the water around Clyde Quay Wharf. 

Gabby will collect ocean data using various methods including drawing, photography and science. She describes some of this activity as ‘fishing’ for ocean temperature, and recording harbour visibility for synthesising in to artworks. This residency will also co-host collaborators from different fields to “hot desk” in the studio with Gabby, working together to learn more about the ocean and what it means through direct engagement. 

Look out here for information about workshops, an exhibition project, and other activities from Gabby in the coming weeks.  

Address

Wellington

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Te Whare Hēra posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Establishment

Send a message to Te Whare Hēra:

Shortcuts

Share

Category