The Academy has a large and enthusiastic membership and is run by an elected President and Council, paid staff and a dedicated team of volunteers.

Our Council is led by President Ian Hamlin. Find out more. We are also honoured to have Vice Regal patronage. Find out more.

Our staff team includes Director Dr. Warren Feeney, a Curator and Gallery Manager (tba), Co-ordinator and Technician Dean Edgington, and Financial and Office Administrator Ken Drayton.

Director, Dr. Warren Feeney

Dr. Warren Feeney was the Director of the Centre of Contemporary Art in Christchurch (formerly the Canterbury Society of Arts from 1999-2010) and has significant experience in gallery management through his time at COCA and in the opening of Chamber241, a gallery established in July 2011 to support and exhibit the work of Christchurch artists.   He completed his Doctorate at the University of Otago in 2009, researching the history of the Canterbury Society of Arts and the place of the art society as an institution in New Zealand.

 
Feeney has also worked as an arts writer, historian and commentator, contributing regularly to The Press and arts publications such as the Journal of New Zealand Art History, Art New Zealand, The Listener and online for www.eyecontactsite.com.  In addition, he is the author of The Radical, the Reactionary and the Canterbury Society of Arts (1880-1996), a new history of the arts in Canterbury, published by Canterbury University Press in 2011.

He sees the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts as an arts institution that has made a significant contribution to the country art, particularly in the development of its founding collection, now held in Te Papa Tongarewa.  He maintains that, as one of New Zealand’s leading art societies for the past 130 years, the Academy retains an obligation and an ambition to continue to play a significant role in the development of the country’s art.  He acknowledges that its status as a long-serving arts institution, supported and managed by working artists for much of its history,remains vital to its principles and programme in the 21st century. 

Curator and Gallery Manager, tba

Gallery Co-ordinator and Technician, Dean Edgington.

Volunteers

The Academy relies on the support and energy of its many volunteers who do a wide range of tasks. Volunteers are involved in receiving artworks, cataloguing and hanging exhibitions. They can also be the face of the Academy on the front desk. A small group of more specialist volunteers also assist with ongoing projects and tasks such as web site maintenance, marketing and promotion.

A few of our team are:

Front of House: Beryl Buchanan, Emma Day, John Conigrave, Annette Goldsmith, Maureen Lawler, Linda Lee, Jann Pearce, and Emi Pogoni.

De-installaiton and packing of artworks: Esme Hanton, Lauren Stewart and Craig Williams.

Exhibition Installation: Hamish Coleman, Simon Jay  and Phil Quinn.

You can support the Academy by becoming a member or volunteer