Follow up your Friend’s preview by joining the co-curators in conversation. Dr Sarah Farrar and Dr Nina Tonga will talk us through the curation of Dame Robin White’s retrospective exhibition Something is happening here, sharing insights into their research and the process of selecting works that chart over 50 years of art making. A conversation not to be missed!
Dr Nina Tonga is Curator Contemporary Art at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She is from the villages of Vaini and Kolofo’ou in the Kingdom of Tonga and was born and raised in New Zealand. Nina has been involved in a number of writing and curatorial projects in New Zealand and the wider Pacific and was Curator of the Honolulu Biennial 2019. Her exhibitions include Home AKL (2012) at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Tonga i Onopooni (2014) at Pataka Art + Museum, Tīvaevae: Out of the Glory Box (2015) and Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists (2018-2019) at Te Papa.
Dr Sarah Farrar is a curator and writer based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She is currently the head of the curatorial department at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki where she is responsible for the curatorial, research library and archives, learning and public programmes teams. Sarah‘s doctoral research examines strategies of curatorial activism in local and international art galleries and museums. For twenty years, she has curated exhibitions and contributed to art publications, including books, catalogues and journal articles, in Aotearoa, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, China and the UK. Sarah’s research interests in the complexities and strengths of cross-cultural exchange and collaboration, along with her motivation to see senior women artists duly acknowledged, have drawn her to Robin White’s work.