Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts

Te Tuhi is a nationally significant contemporary art gallery presenting exhibitions and projects by New Zealand and international artists. Te Tuhi works actively within the community of Auckland, providing a conduit for audience engagement and participation in the visual arts, underpinned by innovative exhibitions, education and associated programmes. In addition, Te Tuhi serves as a focal point for the community as an events venue and meeting place for our many users and community groups.

In 2015, Te Tuhi will welcome Hiraani Himona as the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the gallery. Hiraani is currently the Deputy Director of the South London Gallery, one of five medium-scale contemporary art venues in London and recognised in the UK as a centre of excellence for contemporary visual art exhibitions and live art events. She returns to New Zealand in March 2015, taking over the helm from the much respected outgoing Chief Executive Officer of Te Tuhi, James McCarthy.  

History

Te Tuhi was created in a partnership between the Fisher Gallery and the Pakuranga Community and Cultural Centre, the latter formally a Manukau City Council facility.

The Fisher Gallery had been created in the early 1980's by a dedicated and energetic group of local art lovers, who had decided that the area, only recently subdivided for residential use, needed an arts venue. The Fisher Gallery took its name from the Fisher family, who farmed the area prior to its suburbanisation and Iris Fisher, who was an original member of the Pakuranga Arts Society and the driving force behind the effort to build the new institution.

The name Te Tuhi was generously conferred on the institution by the Ngai Tai Iwi. The name refers to the legend of the ancestor Manawatere, a Maori voyager and explorer who arrived in the Hauraki Gulf prior to the arrival of the Tainui waka. Landing at the beach at Howick's Cockle Bay, he made his tuhi, or mark, on a pohutukawa tree located on the foreshore, using karamea, a red ochre. This was his sign to those who would follow, that this was the place he had chosen - 'Te Tuhi a Manawatere'. The tree still stands today, although the tuhi has since disappeared.

Te Tuhi is administered by the Te Tuhi Contemporary Art Trust in conjunction with the Contemporary Art Foundation.