Press and Paint: Seaweed card making and watercolour workshops
Remember botanist and artist Nancy Adams with creative activities using watercolours and seaweed.
Sat 25 Jul 2026, 11am to 1pm
Event Ngā kaupapa motuhake
ExhibitionsOpen 22 July
Nancy Adams: Te Toi RimurimuNancy Adams: The Art of Seaweed
I tino ngākaunui te pūkenga toi, te tohunga huaota a Nancy Adams ki ngā pūkohu wai me ngā rimurimu. Ka whakanuia te kotahi rautau o tōna whānautanga mai i tēnei whakaaturanga poto ki te whiringa o āna kohinga tauira me āna peita waikano muramura.
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Talented artist and botanist Nancy Adams had a passion for algae and seaweed. This small display of her collected specimens and vivid watercolours celebrates the centenary of Adams’ birth.
When | Āhea
Wed 22 July – November 2026
Where | Ki hea
Wellington Foyer, Level 2
Cost | Te utu
Free with museum entry
Allow | Me whakarite
10 minutes
Accessibility | E wātea ana ki
Wheelchair accessible
Nancy Adams’ extensive field work took her from seashores to mountaintops – adding a massive 3,352 specimens to the museum’s botany collection.
The wonderful colours the seaweeds exhibit in situ are often lost when the moving plants are taken from the water, especially the vivid blue or green iridescence. However, the drawings show as nearly as possible the colours of a freshly-gathered plant …
– Nancy Adams, 1994
Events
Discover moreKia kitea ake
Panel Talk: Nancy Adams 100th Birthday – Her Life and Legacy
A panel discussion with prominent seaweed experts marks the 100th birthday of artist, botanist, and curator, Nancy Adams.
Sat 25 Jul 2026, 2pm to 3pm
Event Ngā kaupapa motuhake
Nancy Adams: Botanist and artist
Nancy Adams (1926–2007) was one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most notable botanists and a talented artist. One of Te Papa’s most prolific botany collectors of all time, she also painted and drew an incredible number of botanical illustrations. She used her artwork to produce important books about Aotearoa New Zealand’s flora, including seaweeds, flowers, trees, and alpine plants.
Botanical art and illustration
Botanical illustration can serve the needs of botany, documenting and supporting the description of plants and flowers for science records. But it can also serve the needs of art, conveying the beauty of a plant to viewers.
Te Papa, home to both the National Art Collection and the WELT Herbarium, holds a wide range of botanical illustrations, from Joseph Banks’ Florilegium to Sarah Featon’s exquisite 19th-century watercolours of Aotearoa’s indigenous flora. Explore some of them here.
Seaweed sisters
Aotearoa New Zealand’s extensive coastline is home to hugely diverse and luxuriant seaweed flora. Over the last 100 years, a significant number of women have contributed to the study of our macro-algae and showed a passion for the botanical world from an early age.
Hoa Whakaaturanga | Exhibition Partner
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