Secondary Education Programmes

Topics in contemporary art: artists, movements, histories, politics

This 1-hour programme for 20 learners uses the current art exhibitions in our galleries to dive into topics in recent art history and practice.

It will include a gallery tour and discussion time (touching on the artists, their practices and the changing social and political context); offer learners some practical techniques for close viewing and responding to works of art; and build their confidence and joy in engaging with creative cultures. 

Topics will shift according to the changing exhibition programme. Coming up in Terms 3 and 4 we can choose from Inside Out, the National Contemporary Art Award (August 2025), Waikato Waikorio and Cultural Threads (September 2025). 

Toi Maaori: Toi tuuturu, toi whakawhiti, toi rerekee – From taonga Maaori to contemporary practice

This 1-hour programme for 20 learners is suited to anyone interested in exploring the evolution of toi Maaori, from whenua-based customary practices (the whare whakairo, raranga and more) through transcustomary practices to contemporary toi Maaori on the global stage.

It will include: a gallery tour and discussion time (touching on maatauranga Māori, whenua and whakapapa as well as global and contemporary contexts).

Students will be encouraged to reflect on the cultural complexities of engaging with taonga, of making (or borrowing from) indigenous art today, and on their own relationship to these artists, works, and issues. 

Topics will shift according to the changing exhibition programme. In Terms 3 and 4 our options include Robyn Kahukiwa: Tohunga Mahi Toi, Inside Out, Ripples, the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award, Waikato Waikorio and Cultural Threads (from September 2025).

[Detail, Hinetītama by Robyn Kahukiwa, 1980, Te Manawa Art Society Collection]

Uplifting Waikato ecologies: Awa, repo, awaawa 

This 1-hour programme for 20 learners focuses on our waterways including the hidden tributaries and culverted streams beneath Kirikiriroa Hamilton City. These hidden taonga hold a wealth of stories and histories of significance to the people of our region.

We will consider some challenges faced by our awa and its environs, and introduce contemporary and customary kaitiaki practices in relation to these taonga.

Galleries visited will shift with our changing exhibition programme, but in 2025 may include Te Winika gallery and Exscite, as well as upcoming exhibitions Waikato Waikorio (Māori artists, opening September), the National Contemporary Art Award, and the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award.

Time travels: Taonga revisited – understanding history through our Museum collection 

This 1-hour programme for 20 learners teases out the hidden narratives of taonga and collection items, moving from the Tainui waka migration and settlement to He Whakaputanga, the Kiingitanga, the Waikato wars and more.

By hearing the stories embedded in material objects – their many journeys from darkness to light, and from past to present to past – we can better understand our place in the Waikato today. 

For 2025, this programme will focus on the Te Winika exhibition and Shaping Hamilton - Huringa Kirikiriroa.

Puuraakau: He aha te koorero o teenei taonga? 

This 1-hour programme for 20 learners will look at artworks and taonga with connections to puuraakau – Maaori stories about atua, landforms and the naming of whenua.

Some customary narratives will be told, and we will think about the differences between western literacy and indigenous oral storytelling. Who gets to tell a story and how should it be told? What happens when you write it down? And what happens when a story loses its taonga, or vice versa?

Galleries visited in 2025 may include: The Tongue of the Dog, Te Winika, Robyn Kahukiwa, Inside Out, Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award and Waikato Waikorio (Maaori artists, opening September).