Celia Lashlie Commission for the NZ Portrait Gallery Collection

We asked New Zealanders whose portrait was missing from our New Zealand portrait collection and the message came through loud and clear� social justice campaigner, Celia Lashlie! Now we want to honour that outcome by commissioning acclaimed New Zealand portrait artist Heather Main to create Lashlie's posthumous portrait for the New Zealand Portrait Gallery's Collection - and with your donations, we can make this happen!

Celia Lashlie is an important figure to honour and preserve as part of the country's cultural and social heritage. Beginning in 1985, she was the first woman to work in a male prison in New Zealand, and continued for 15 years within the Prison Service. Lashlie then became the service Manager of Christchurch Women's Prison. After leaving this role in 1999, she completed the 'Good Man' project, which facilitated discussion within and between 25 boys' schools throughout New Zealand, with the aim of creating a working definition of what makes a good man in the 21st century.

Celia Lashlie was also a researcher, author and social commentator whose important work remains in her books: The Journey to Prison: Who goes and why, He'll Be Ok, Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men and The Power of Mothers: Releasing Our Children. Celia passed away from pancreatic cancer in February 2015.

We at the NZPG are passionate about building an accessible, diverse and comprehensive collection of portraits of New Zealander's who have helped shaped our identity as a nation. Our vision is to connect visitors with portraits that help us tell future generations the stories about ourselves. And this is one reason why we are so excited about this project!

We are commissioning one of New Zealand's most acclaimed portrait artists, Main to create Celia Lashlie's posthumous portrait for the New Zealand Portrait Gallery's collection.
Celia's desire to bring about societal change continues through the work of the Celia Lashlie Projects. This group is determined to support those who work and live to make positive change for women and families. Celia Lashlie Projects is fully behind us with this commission and has generated a generous sum of $4,400 towards this commission as a match donor. That means for every $ you give, it will be matched up to $4,400.

Our target is $8,800 and with the generous match donation of $4,400, we need you to help us raise the additional $4,400 funds throughout this 30 day campaign. This is our first crowdfunding campaign and we need all your support in order to make this happen!

How can you help us even more!?
Once you have donated, please, please, please share the page with your networks - no matter how near or far. People can only give their support if they know about us. Help us spread the word and show your support!

Come into the gallery, or donate through this webpage and then pass it on to all those people you think would like to get involved with supporting the NZPG.

About us:

NZPG is a non-profit, public gallery that aims, through our exhibition programming and collection plan, to engage not only the art lovers but those New Zealanders who have a passion for the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what's important to us.