The Art Thursday Lecture Series during March will discuss three exhibits at Te Papa in turn.

 

Thursday 2 March, 6pm - 7pm. ICON, Level 2. Free entry.

Discover colour and structure in modern French painting (from Impressionism to Cubism) with Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, Te Papa's Director Art and Collection Services. Presented in association with the exhibition Cézanne to Picasso: Paintings from the Julian & Josie Robertson Collection, New York.

 

Thursday 9 March, 6pm - 7pm. ICON, Level 2. Free entry.

Find out how Dutch and French artists engaged with the Japanese woodcut print with Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, Te Papa's Director Art and Collection Services. Presented in association with the exhibition Splendours of Japan - Treasures from the Tokyo National Museum, and with examples from Te Papa¹s collections.

 

Thursday 16 March, 6pm - 7pm. The Marae. Free entry.

This stimulating panel discussion will look at many of the issues relating to the presentation and understanding of taonga Mäori (Mäori cultural treasures) as art: tikanga (customary values), the heritage of Te Mäori, the continuity and discontinuity between taonga and contemporary Mäori art, appropriation, and much more.

 

Chaired by Arapata Hakiwai, Director Mâtauranga Mâori at Te Papa. Panellists include:  

 

Robert Jahnke hails from Waipiro Bay on the East coast of the North Island. He holds a Diploma of Teaching, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design, and a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Elam School of Fine arts. He also has a Masters degree in Film Graphics and Experimental Film Animation from the California Institute of Arts. Jahnke is recognised as one of New Zealand's leading Mäori sculptors and has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand and internationally since 1982.    

 

Dr Paul Tapsell (Te Arawa, Ngati Raukawa) is Tumuaki (Director Mäori) of Auckland Museum (since 2000) and Curator of the hightly successful Ko Tawa exhibition. He comes from a curatorial background (Rotorua Museum 1990-94) and completed studies at Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford (1995‑98). Paul's curatorial goals include exploring new ways of telling stories by activating taonga-related narratives as remembered by iwi descendants.

  

Jonathan Mane-Wheoki is Director Art and Collection Services at Te Papa. He is responsible for leading research, curatorial, and collection management functions for Te Papa's Art and Collection Services units. Of Ngâ Puhi and English descent, he was educated in Auckland and at the University of Canterbury, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. He has been the Dean of Visual and Performing Arts at Canterbury University.

  

Huhana Smith is Senior Curator (Mäori) at Te Papa. She is affiliated to Ngäti Tukorehe and Ngäti Raukawa. She has a BEd, a Bachelor of Mäori Visual Art (Hons), a postgraduate Museum Studies qualification, and is a PhD candidate.

 

Please note: This lecture series will run in place of the Toi Te Papa Unplugged Lecture advertised in the New Zealand International Arts Festival programme. The Unplugged lectures have been deferred until October 2006.