Meet our 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureates

The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi welcomes eight new Laureates to our over 100-strong artist alumni.

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. The Award recognises the potential for an enduring career and significant impact on Aotearoa New Zealand, with a $25,000 gift.

This year marks a mighty milestone for the Arts Foudation Te Tumu Toi. Our Laureate Awards programme turns 21! Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Lead, Jo Blair says, “We couldn’t think of eight artists more suited to representing the great mana of our Laurate Awards programme – particularly significant as we celebrate our 21^st year of the Awards. We are incredibly proud of our legacy of backing the arts, and our Laureate programme truly embodies this.”

Introducing: our 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureates...

MAISEY RIKA

Award: 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Jillian Friedlander Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Award

Discipline: Music

Maisey Rika is a multi-award winning singer songwriter who tells the stories of her people. She has inspired a who’s-who of contemporary Māori musicians, achieving international stardom that is deeply grounded in Aotearoa.

BRETT GRAHAM

Award: 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the My Art Visual Arts Award

Discipline: Visual Art

Brett Graham is widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s most accomplished contemporary artists. His large-scale artworks and installations explore our collective histories, challenging us to look to the past to understand who we are.

FLORIAN HABICHT

Award: 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Dame Gaylene Preston Award for Documentary Filmmakers

Discipline: Filmmaker

Florian Habicht is regarded as one of Aotearoa’s most outstanding documentarians. His latest project, James and Isey (2021) has cemented him as an inventor of genre, and a unique and distinctive voice in New Zealand film.

SHANE BOSHER

Award: 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Burr/Tatham Trust Award

Discipline: Theatre

Shane has been a director, actor, dramaturg and producer for over twenty years. His bold, widely celebrated work is exceptionally inclusionary, making space for untold stories and communities to be heard.

RANGI KIPA

Award: 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the award for Ngā toi Māori

Discipline: Ngā toi Māori

Rangi Kipa is at the forefront of contemporary whakairo in Aotearoa. He is highly respected as a Māori artist and leader throughout Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, and has forged a practice that explores how customary Māori motifs, materials and techniques can be re-envisaged in a kōrero between past and present.

NINA NAWALOWALO ONZM

Award: 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Theresa Gattung Female Arts Practitioners Award

Discipline: Theatre

In a career spanning more than 35 years, internationally acclaimed theatre director Nina Nawalowalo ONZM has pioneered a platform for the telling stories of the Pacific across the globe.

VASANTI UNKA

Award: 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award

Discipline: Illustration

Finding beauty in the everyday, Vasanti Unka is a writer, designer and illustrator noted for the originality of her storytelling. Her award-winning picture books aim above all to create an inclusive and welcoming world for every child.

Stories told thanks to Augusto and McCarthy.

HARRY CULY

Award: 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate receiving the Marti Friedlander Photographic Award

Discipline: Photography

Harry Culy is an acclaimed, award-winning photographer living and working in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Often returning to places and communities that he has a personal connection to, he works on long term projects that often span a number of years, examining contemporary everyday life in both Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.