Residents 2009 – 2010
Dame Gillian Whitehead is an internationally respected opera, choral and orchestral composer whose Māori heritage has been an important influence on her work, Gillian spent over fourteen years in Britain and Europe firmly establishing her international reputation and she is now acclaimed as one of the most important composers in Australasia. Her works includes operas, orchestral works, choral pieces, vocal and instrumental chamber compositions, solo works, pieces involving taonga puoro and compositions including improvisation.
In recognition of her lifetime contribution to music the University of Wellington awarded her an honorary doctorate in Music and was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her Services to Music. Her other awards are too numerous to list here but include: awards from the Arts Foundation; an Arts Foundation Laureate; the Composers Association KBB Citation for Services to Music and the CANZ Trust Fund Award. Gillian was appointed an Arts Foundation Icon (2018).
During her Residency Gillian composed several music scores including ‘Five Central Landscapes’, ‘Te Whiringa o Manoko’ and ‘Lullaby of Loss’. She also gave a public talk at Central Stories Alexandra.
Born in Nelson Warwick Freeman is a leading figure in New Zealand contemporary jewellery. He was a prominent member of a group of jewellers in the 1980s who began exploring the use of local materials in contemporary jewellery which reflected New Zealand’s changing cultural and political environment. He was the founding chair of Auckland contemporary craft and design gallery Objectspace and in 2013 became a Governor of the New Zealand Arts Foundation.
Warwick regularly exhibits in New Zealand and Australia, as well as in Europe and the United States and his works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; Auckland Museum; the Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt; the Danner Stiftung, Munich; the Helen Drutt Collection, Philadelphia; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Te Papa, Museum of New Zealand, Wellington. He has been awarded an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate and named Laureate by the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation (based at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2002.
Warwick (who was only able to commit to 3 months) donated books on his work and gave a public talk at Central Stories