People

Staff
  • DJCS
    Director

    DJCS is an artist and curator from Ngāmotu, Aotearoa, whose practice is grounded in queer methodologies and institutional critique. Their curatorial work interrogates how institutions regulate bodies, aesthetics and temporalities, and how queer practice can destabilise these logics through affect, refusal and collective experimentation. Committed to fostering conditions for radical thought and care, DJCS curates insisting that the role of the gallery is to challenge the structure it occupies, from the inside out.

    Currently serving as Director of Enjoy Contemporary Art Space (2022–present), DJCS brings over a decade of experience across public institutions, commercial galleries, and artist-run initiatives. Their independent curatorial work reflects an ongoing commitment to reframing dominant historiographies, advocating for curatorial strategies that resist assimilation and instead centre friction, refusal and multiplicity. DJCS approaches the gallery as a biopolitical site, one that must actively challenge the institutional conditions that produce exclusion. 

    DJCS earns $33.80 per hour, and works an average of 40 hours per week.

  • Brooke Pou
    Curator

    Brooke Pou (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Te Rangi) is a curator from Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She has experience working a range of roles in various art galleries and aims to utilise this at Enjoy by taking a holistic approach when developing and delivering exhibitions. 

    Brooke graduated from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington in 2022 with an Honours degree in Art History, where her research examined past portrayals of Indigenous women in European art. She is currently working on her Masters thesis at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland, focusing on wāhine Māori and Moana curators, artists, artwork and exhibitions.


    Brooke earns $33.80 per hour, and works an average of 22 hours per week.

     

  • Past Staff

    Claire Harris
    Editor & Archivist, 2021–2023

    Tom Denize
    Assistant curator, 2022

    Etanah Falagā Talapā
    Curator (exhibitions & public programmes), 2021–22

    Liang Cui
    Publications, archives and writing assistant, 2022

    Maya Athineou-Nunn
    Gallery assistant, 2022

    Vanessa Mei 
    Director, 2020–22

    Hugo Robinson
    Gallery administrator, 2021

    Nina Dyer
    Gallery administrator, 2020–21

    Simon Gennard
    Assistant curator, 2018–21

    Sophie Davis
    Director, 2016–2020

    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
  • Jess Clifford
    Chair

    Jess Clifford is a critic and curator from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, where she works for CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image and Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery. She is the editor of CIRCUIT: Dialogues in Artist Moving Image (forthcoming 2025), and previously produced two anthologies of artist lectures for the Städelschule art school in Germany, which featured texts by Martha Rosler, Cauleen Smith and Moyra Davey, among others. Jess spent eight years working in communications and governance roles for museums and art galleries in London, including Tate, Firstsite, and Sotheby’s, as well as on independent projects with organisations such as Biennale Für Freiburg, Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim, Kunsthalle Portikus, and the Swiss Institute, New York. Her recent curatorial projects include: Inas Halabi: The Centre Does Not Hold, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, 2024; I’m so into you, co-curated with Abby Cunnane, The Physics Room, 2024; and To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, 2023.

  • Susan Ballard
    Secretary

    Susan Ballard is a Professor of art history and environmental humanities at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Her work is concerned with art, nature, extraction, affect, care, collaboration, memory, and decoloniality. Recent books include Art and Nature in the Anthropocene: Planetary Aesthetics (Routledge 2021) and Alliances in the Anthropocene (with Christine Eriksen, Palgrave 2020). Su’s ongoing collaborative curatorial project with Sophie Thorn includes the exhibitions Listening Stones Jumping Rocks (2021) and Folded Memory (2023) both at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery. Her new book Shift Work: A Conversation on Art and Life in the Third Millennium (with Liz Linden) will be published by Punctum Press in 2025.

  • Sam Kirk
    Treasurer
  • Ioana Gordon-Smith
    Trustee
    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.
     
  • Sebastian Clarke
    Trustee

    Sebastian Clarke (Ngāti Awa, Pākehā) is a public servant with significant experience in cultural policy. His writing on Aotearoa New Zealand architecture, art, and craft has been featured in many publications and online platforms. Alongside his involvement with Enjoy, Sebastian is the Chair of the Rita Angus Cottage Trust and a Trustee of Wharepaia Hapū Trust.

  • Past

    Turumeke Harrington 2021–25

    Hanahiva Rose (Co-Secretary) 2021–24

    Natalie Jones (Co-Chair) 2020–23

    Elisabeth Pointon (Co-Chair) 2023

    Nick Spratt (Secretary) 2021–23

    Kat Ricketts (Treasurer) 2017–23

    Kerry Ann Lee (Tia Tuarua | Co-Chair) 2020–22

    Brook Konia 2021–22

    Herbee Bartley 2018–21

    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

    Kate Adolph 2010 - 15

    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

    Clem Devine 2002–04

    Tao Wells 2001–04

    Daniel du Bern 2003

    Bek Coogan 2002–03

    Stuart Shepherd 2002–03   

    Ros Cameron 2000–02

    Ciaran Begley 2000–02

    Rachel Smithies 2000–02

Interns
  • Sophie Mephan

    Sophie Mephan is an Honours student in Art History at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Her research explores concepts of time in relation to art across Aotearoa, Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, and further afield. 

  • Past interns

    Elvis Booth-Claveria
    Massey Arts Intern, 2024

    Sophia Coghini
    Tautai Oceania Intern, 2021

    Tom Denize
    Massey Arts Intern, 2021

    Connie Brown
    Archive and Library Intern, 2019

    Hōhua Thompson
    Toi Māori Education and Audience Intern, 2019

    Xander Dixon
    Photography Intern, 2018

    Melina Payne
    Partnerships and Environmental Sustainability Intern, 2018

    Imogen Simmonds
    Archive and library Intern, 2018

    Dilohana Lekamge 
    Writing and Publications Intern, 2017

    Hugo Robinson
    Writing and Publications Intern, 2017

    Ellyse Randrup
    Design Intern, 2016

    Andrew Matautia
    Photography Intern, 2015

    Clémence Vole
    Gallery Administration Systems Intern, 2015

    Elisabeth Pointon
    Gallery Administration Systems Intern, 2015