Meet our 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureates

The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi welcomes nine new Laureates to our 120-strong alumni of remarkable New Zealand artists.

Established in 2000, the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Awards celebrate and empower New Zealand’s most outstanding artists across a vast range of disciplines. Each Laureate is recognised for their outstanding practice as well as their significant impact, and receives a $35,000 gift – funded by generous arts lovers from across the country.

Introducing: our 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureates:

SEAN MACDONALD

Award: 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Burr/Tatham Trust Award
Discipline: Contemporary Dance/ Choreography

Renowned contemporary dancer and performer Sean MacDonald is one of Aotearoa’s most celebrated and distinguished dance artists. He has worked with New Zealand’s leading choreographers and dance companies, performing extensively throughout Aotearoa and across continents for over 30 years.

LADI6 MNZM

Award: 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Theresa Gattung Female Arts Practitioners Award
Discipline: Music

As a vocalist, MC and truth-teller, the consistent evolution of Ladi6 has firmly cemented her as New Zealand’s undisputed Queen of Hip-hop/Soul and R&B. Taking shape in different forms over the years, Ladi6 today is the group project of vocalist Ladi and a trio of accomplished Kiwi producers; her husband Parks, drummer Julien Dyne and keyboardist Brandon Haru – three of New Zealand’s most innovative creators, renowned for pushing the boundaries of electronic soul music.

PETER BLACK

Award: 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Marti Friedlander Photography award
Discipline: Photography

Peter Black is a long time photographer of Aotearoa’s social landscape. With a career spanning almost 50 years, the Christchurch-born photographer is recognised as one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s foremost photographers.

FIONA CLARK

Award: 2022 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the My ART Visual Arts Award
Discipline: Visual Activist/ Photographer

Fiona Clark is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most incisive visual activist photographers. For close to fifty years, she has used the camera to explore the lives of individuals considered to occupy the fringes of society, revealing the human dignity of people together and alone in a country at times gripped by repressive attitudes, including towards artists.

SOPOLEMALAMA FILIPE TOHI

Award: 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the John and Jo Gow Sculpture Award
Discipline: Sculpture

Spanning over thirty years, Auckland-based artist Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi’s contemporary practice has its foundations in the traditional Tongan cultural practice of lalava (sennit lashing). Tohi believes lalava patterns were a mnemonic device for representing a life philosophy, advocating balance in daily living, and were tied to cultural knowledge.

TAIAROA ROYAL

Award: 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Laureate Award

Discipline: Māori Contemporary Dance

Taiaroa Royal is one of New Zealand’s most outstanding and versatile dancers. He graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance in 1984. Since then, he has worked with the major dance companies in New Zealand, including the Royal New Zealand Ballet; Limbs Dance Company; Douglas Wright Dance Company; Human Garden; Origins; Commotion; Black Grace (of which he was a founding member) and Atamira Dance Company.

GISELLE CLARKSON

Award: 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award
Discipline: Illustration

Giselle Clarkson is an illustrator and author living in South Wairarapa. She has illustrated a number of award-winning children's books, and publishes a bimonthly comic about the craft and history of children’s books for The Sapling. Her first book as both author and illustrator will be released in 2023, published by Gecko Press. The Observologist: A Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions is a playful, non-fiction field guide for budding natural scientists.

ANNIE GOLDSON ONZM

Award: 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Dame Gaylene Preston Documentary Film Makers Award
Discipline: Documentary Film

Annie Goldson ONZM is documentary filmmaker from Tāmaki Makaurau whose titles include the features Punitive Damage, Georgie Girl, Brother Number One and Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web. She tends to be a ‘hands on’ filmmaker, undertaking many roles. Her films have won multiple awards in festivals and competitions worldwide and have sold to many broadcasters and streaming platforms. She is a Professor at the University of Auckland where she received her PhD.

ROBERT JAHNKE ONZM FRSNZ