People

Staff
  • Vanessa Mei Crofskey
    Director

    Vanessa Mei Crofskey joined Enjoy as director in November 2020. Vanessa is an artist, producer and writer of Chinese and Pākehā descent. Since graduating from Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2017, Vanessa has worked as producer in residence at Basement Theatre, as a curator for Window Gallery, University of Auckland, and most recently as a staff writer and communications manager for arts and culture journal The Pantograph Punch.

    In her work as an interdisciplinary arts practitioner Vanessa has worked extensively with festivals, public programmes and galleries to create exciting public events and installations, most recently with Satellites and Artspace Aotearoa. Vanessa is also a published poet and has a collection out with Auckland University Press (AUP New Poet’s Six).

  • Etanah Falagā Talapā
    Curator (Exhibitions & Public Programmes)

    Etanah (b. 1995, Lower Hutt, Wellington) is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist who is of Afega and Sa'anapu heritage from Samoa.

    Etanah graduated with a Bachelor of Design in Spatial Design from Massey University in 2018. Since then, she has worked as an intern at Tauranga Art Gallery through Tautai Pacific Arts Trust and has returned to her home in the Hutt Valley as an artist mentor at Taita and Naenae Clubhouse for the past three years. Her work operates at the intersections of public installations, digital art, mixed media and photography.

     

  • Claire Harris
    Communications & Publications Manager

    Claire Harris joined Enjoy in April 2021 on a temporary basis and became publications and communications manager in August 2021. She is Pākehā, and was born in Gore as part of what used to be called 'Generation Y' and is now called 'Old Millennial'. With a history in library work and in volunteer organiser in self-publishing communities, Claire aims to increase usability and access to Enjoy’s reading room and publishing programme.

    Claire graduated from University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 2005, majoring in photography, and completed a Master of Fine Arts at Massey University in 2019. As a practising video and performance artist her work has a recurring focus on humour, trauma and longing particularly as expressed through celebrity and fan culture.

     

  • Past Staff

    —Hugo Robinson
    Administrator, 2021


    —Nina Dyer
    Gallery Administrator, 2020–2021


    —Simon Gennard
    Assistant curator, 2018–2021


    —Sophie Davis
    Director, 2016–2020


    —Hōhua Thompson
    Toi Māori Education and Audience Intern, 2019


    —Louise Rutledge
    Communications and publications manager, 2015–18


    —Emma Ng
    Gallery manager and curator, 2014–16


    —Meredith Crowe
    Communications and publications manager, 2013–15


    —Julia Lomas
    Communications and publications manager, 2012–13


    —Claudia Arozqueta
    Gallery manager and curator, 2011–13


    —Bopha Chhay
    Communications and publications manager, 2010–12


    —Erica van Zon
    Gallery manager and curator, 2010–11


    —Jeremy Booth
    Communications and publications manager, 2009–10


    —Siv B. Fjærestad
    Gallery manager and curator, 2007–10


    —Paula Booker
    Publications manager, 2006–09


    —Marnie Slater
    Gallery manager and curator, 2007


    —Melanie Oliver
    Gallery manager and curator, 2004–07


    —Melanie Hogg
    Gallery manager and curator, 2004–06


    —Jessica Reid
    Writer and publicist, 2004–06


    —Louise Menzies
    Writer and publicist, 2003–04


    —Louise Tulett
    Writer and publicist, 2003–05


    —Kate Kelly
    Gallery manager, 2002–03


    —Charlotte Huddleston
    Trustee and gallery manager, 2000–04

Trust
  • Natalie Jones
    Tia Tuarua | Co-Chair

    Natalie Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Ngāi Tahu) is a Pōneke-based arts practitioner. She has worked in public galleries and museums, a national Māori arts organisation, membership-based gallery models, community based, social services and dealer gallery contexts. Most recently, Natalie has established The Price of Change Ltd which is an artist-centric organisation that aims to provide advocacy services for Māori craft and object practitioners.

  • Kerry Ann Lee
    Tia Tuarua | Co-Chair

    Kerry Ann Lee is an artist, designer and writer from Te Whanganui-a-tara. She is a Senior Lecturer at Toi Rauwhārangi, Massey University College of Creative Arts. Through an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and collaborative practice, Kerry Ann creates installations, print and image-based works that engage with communities and their histories in public spaces. She is the founder of the Red Letter Distro, co-founder of Up The Punks with John Lake and was the Creative Director for the Asian Aotearoa Arts Hui 2018. Kerry Ann regularly exhibits both nationally and internationally. She has undertaken international artist residencies in China, Taiwan, US, Mexico and Australia and is well known for her work in independent publishing and fanzines over the past two decades.

  • Kate Ricketts
    Treasurer

    Kate Ricketts is a fundraiser and arts administrator. She is a former Trustee for Arcade New Zealand Live Arts Trust and has work across Boosted.org.nz, The Arts Foundation Toi Māori Aotearoa, and Māori Art Market. Through roles in Japan, London and America she has engaged with the promotion of New Zealand art and culture internationally.

    As well as owning BR Flooring she assists several not-for-profit groups with their fundraising strategies.

  • Herbee Bartley

    Herbee Bartley joined Enjoy’s board in September 2018. He is currently Senior Pasifika Advisor for the College of Creative Arts at Massey University, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Prior to this role, he worked in various roles at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa for 7 years.

  • Nick Spratt
  • Ioana Gordon-Smith
    Ioana Gordon-Smith (Sāmoan, English) is an arts writer and curator living in Porirua. She has held roles at Artspace Aotearoa, Objectspace and Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery. She is the Assistant Curator for Yuki Kihara Aotearoa New Zealand at the 59th Venice Biennale 2022 and co-curator of the international Indigenous triennial, Naadohbii: To Draw Water in Canada. Ioana is the co-founder and co-editor of Marinade: Aotearoa Journal of Moana Art and she currently works as the Curator Māori Pacific at Pātaka Art + Museum. Consistent throughout her curatorial process is a priority on close working relationships with artists.
     
  • Brook Konia

    Brook Konia (Ngati Porou, Kōtimana, Pākehā) is a researcher and writer for Māori art. He is currently Assistant Curator Modern and Contemporary Māori Art at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. Born in Whangārei, Brook moved to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to study art, graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts in 2016. Passionately a part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s art sector; he has written previously for RM Gallery and Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, was the Artweek guide for Auckland Council’s Te Paparahi Toi Māori tours 2018, exhibition attendant for Dane Mitchell’s Post Hoc at the Venice Biennale 2019 and curator intern for Toi Tū Toi Ora Contemporary Māori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

     

    Hei ara toi ki te ora - Mā te tika, mā te pono me te aroha e.

    The path of art leads to wellness - as a language of truth, faith and love.

  • Hanahiva Rose

    Hanahiva Rose is a writer and curator. She is currently the assistant curator of modern and contemporary art at Te Papa, and was previously the assistant curator of contemporary art and collections at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. 

    Hanahiva is widely published for her research into modern and contemporary art practices in Aotearoa, with a particular focus on Māori and Pacific artists and their histories. Recent projects include the touring group exhibition Stars start falling (2021) and the Uneven Bodies Reader (2021), co-edited with Ruth Buchanan, Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh. 

    Hanahiva's relationship with Enjoy has been ongoing. She was a contributing writer to The sea brought you here (2017), a participant in the Extended Conversations writing programme (2018) and curator of the exhibition This is a library (2020). 

  • Past

    Miriama Grace-Smith
    (Mana Whenua Trustee) 2020–21
    Chevron Hassett (Youth Advisor) 2020–21
    Sascha Perfect (Secretary) 2020–21
    Bridget Reweti (Tia Tuarua Co-Chair) 2018–20
    Melanie Oliver (Tia Tuarua Co-chair) 2018–20
    Sonya Lacey 2016–20
    Bruce E. Phillips 2018–19
    Ann Shelton (Chair) 2008–18
    Jordana Bragg 2015–18
    Jessica Hubbard 2013–18
    Shannon Te Ao 2017–18
    Gary Peters 2013–16
    Bryna O'Brien–Kiddey 2013–16
    Alice Tappenden 2012–16
    Sarah Caylor 2012–15
    Alice Baxter 2012–14
    Megan Dunn 2011–13
    Ben Buchanan 2012–13
    Molly Samsell 2009–12
    Jhana Millers 2012
    Frances Speer 2011–12
    Andrew Beck 2011–12
    Bronwyn Holloway–Smith 2008–11
    Mark Bolland 2010–11
    Amit Charan 2006–11
    Kate Woods 2009–10
    Rachel O'Neill 2006–09
    Jenny Gillam 2006–08
    Anton Berndt 2007–08
    Marnie Slater 2006–07
    Jayne Joyce 2004–07
    Louise Menzies 2003–07
    Sandy Gibbs 2005–06
    Kim Paton 2004–06
    Ross Kettle 2003–05
    Louise Tulett 2003–05
    Daniel du Bern 2003
    Clem Devine 2002–04
    Bek Coogan 2002–03
    Stuart Shepherd 2002–03   
    Tao Wells 2000–04
    Ros Cameron 2000–02
    Ciaran Begley 2000–02
    Rachel Smithies 2000–02

Interns
  • Sophia Coghini
    Tautai Arts Intern

    Sophia Coghini is an interdisciplinary Pasifika artist, who is currently undertaking a Tautai Arts Internship with Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, supported by Creative New Zealand.

    Her maternal family is Niuean (Alofi, Hikutavake) and Tahitian. Her father is of Māori (Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi), Italian and Hungarian parentage. Coghini recently studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Massey University. Her art practice explores tivaevae (tifaifai), an inherited tactile skill set, passed down from her grandmother and mother, but within the less ‘traditional’ mediums of concrete, cork, and plaster. The concrete curves and crevices challenge the expected notions of tivaevae (tifaifai), reflecting the institutional space this work struggles to belong within, by materializing a rigid form of time and place. Sophia is interested in how viewing tivaevae in a different form and context can open up conversations around growing customs while continuing to provide the narratives that tivaevae does.


    Moui fiafia ne nakai fai fakaotiaga mo e magafaoa mo e tau kapitiga- Salamo 37:11,29 

  • Tom Denize
    Massey Arts Intern

    Tom Denize is currently studying for a BFA at Massey University. He is interning at Enjoy for 2021 as part of the Massey internship elective. With an interest in installation-based video and photography, Tom has joined the team to gain an insight into gallery operations and to involve himself in the local Pōneke art scene.