Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Open every day 10am-6pm
(except Christmas Day)
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Find out about the people that make up our Art team and their roles at Te Papa.
Curator Modern Art
Lizzie specialises in modern art and design, particularly from the years between 1920 and 1950. She has worked extensively on European and American modernism, and is currently researching contemporary New Zealand art of the interwar period.
Curator Photography
Athol’s expertise is in New Zealand photography, particularly 1940 to the present. Current research includes the history of the museum’s photography collection, the photographs of Māori and their treatment by the museum, and the personal documentary photography of the 1960s and 1970s.
Curator Historical Documentary Photography
Lissa is an art historian whose main research is historical photography relating to Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific region. Specific research areas include early colour and fine art photography, crime in colonial photography, women photographers and photographic histories in the country’s southern region.
Curator Decorative Art & Design
Justine’s expertise lies in decorative arts and design, with reference to New Zealand and its relationship to international design – both historic and contemporary.
In 2025, her book Towards Modernism: the Walter Cook collection at Te Papa, was published through Te Papa Press.
Curator Historical New Zealand Art
Rebecca is an art historian who specialises in in the field of colonial New Zealand art, with a particular interest in the histories of collecting, exhibition, and display. Her current research focuses on the visual culture of the New Zealand Wars, and the impact of impressionism on New Zealand artists at home and abroad.
Curator Contemporary Art
Hanahiva Rose has curated a number of exhibitions at Te Papa, including Kate Newby: SHE’S TALKING TO THE WALL, Memory spaces, Hye Rim Lee: Āke Tonu Atu | Eternity, and Mikala Dwyer: The silverings, as well as for other galleries around Aotearoa. Hanahiva is interested in expressions of time, memory, imagination, and whakapapa in contemporary art. She is a widely published author and a doctoral candidate in Art History at Victoria University.
Te Ātiawa, Ngāi Tahu
Curator Modern & Contemporary Māori & Indigenous Art
Megan has specialist interests in the work of the post war (1945) first generation Māori artists, Mana wahine; Māori women artists of the 1970s and 1980s, the ‘Māori Internationals’; the artists who developed with the advent of biculturalism, a postmodern construct peculiar to New Zealand and global Indigenous art with particular focus on modern and contemporary Indigenous art in Australia, Canada and the United States.
Email enquiries for Te Papa experts go to the Enquiry Centre initially. To help channel your enquiry, you can specify the person you think may be able to help you.
Fresh takes and new favourites. You’ll find them in Toi Art – the home of the National Art Collection.
Discover new artists, get creative in the family-friendly Art Studio, or spend time with a favourite artwork.
On now
Long-term exhibition
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
Explore the work of artists such as Robin White, Tiffany Singh, Matt Pine, Colin McCahon, Tony Fomison, and Rita Angus through videos, podcasts, and in-depth articles. Find out about favourite art works from our curators, or see what is in our collections.
Books about the national art collection, photography, biography, exhibition catalogues and more.
