Delfina Foundation and Metroland Cultures have selected James Tapsell-Kururangi (Te Arawa, Tainui, Ngāti Porou) to spend 12 weeks in London, starting in April, as the inaugural New Zealand curator-in-residence in Delfina Foundation’s Spring 2023 Residency season. This project has been made possible through the very generous support of Kent Gardner and the British Council Aotearoa New Zealand and Pacific.
The residency was awarded following an open call to emerging / mid-career curators interested in testing and developing new approaches to a collaborative practice bridging artists and communities. Over 30 applications were received from which Delfina Foundation and Metroland Cultures selected five for interviews.
Following James’ acceptance of the residency, Delfina Foundation said:
“We are really excited to welcome James Tapsell-Kururangi to London in April, where he can learn from and likewise share knowledge to, the community of 7 co-resident artists and curators staying alongside him at Delfina Foundation.
We believe that Delfina as an institution, his co-residents, and the London arts community at large can truly benefit from the insights, experience and knowledge he has, in a practice which centres local Māori histories and Māori knowledge systems.”
Lois Stonock, Founder and Director of Metroland Cultures, commented:
"We can’t wait to welcome James to Metroland Cultures - and to Brent - as part of his residency in London. The aim of Metroland is to celebrate and support the art and culture that’s being made here in Brent, and help people across the world to hear about it; so an exchange with New Zealand is a great opportunity to start making that happen. We’re very grateful to the British Council and Kent Gardner for their support to enable this work."
James will be heading to London in April for twelve weeks to spend time both working with Metroland Cultures in Brent, and pursuing his own research through Delfina Foundation’s Spring open residency programme. While in London, James will be researching plans for Papatūnga, (Te Tuhi’s new development programme for arts practitioners delivered at O Wairoa Marae, an urban marae in Howick, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) learning from Metroland Cultures’ own artists support programmes like ‘Peer to Peer’.
Read more about James and the residency here.
Read more about Papatūnga here.
Image: James Tapsell–Kururangi (second from left) with artists in development programme on weekend away, morning walk, 2021. Image courtesy of Misong Kim.