A Collector’s Contribution

3pm | Panel Discussion
4pm | Refreshments

In association with the Pāua: A Contemporary Jewellery Story exhibition curator Sian van Dyk talks with collectors Wendy Judgeford and Garth O’Brien alongside two artists with work in their collections—Lisa Walker and Jennifer Laracy—about the potential and possibilities that arise when collectors support makers.

Forming almost a third of the entire exhibition, Wendy Judgeford’s collection is a curious project of her own design, where she commissions some of our most well-known contemporary jewellers to create new work that utilises pāua. Placing almost no conditions on artists, Wendy gives them the time and space to explore this evocative material within the framework of their own practice, opening up a whole new range of enquiries within a twenty-first century context.

A seasoned collector, Garth O’ Brien has been purchasing artwork for his collection since the 1970s, later developing a special interest in contemporary jewellery and travelling as far as Munich Jewellery Week to learn more about this field.

Following the panel, join us for a celebratory drink and nibble to mark the closing of Pāua: A Contemporary Jewellery Story, a dazzling and contemplative exhibition of over seventy works from The Dowse, Auckland Museum, Te Papa and private collections.