Information about events, exhibtions, workshops and more at Toi Pōneke.
Toi Pōneke is excited to present Koru meets Tartan by Toi Pōneke Art Centre’s 2024 Visual Arts Residency recipient Mitchell Manual, opening on Saturday 21st March 2026.
Drop in to the gallery for a short, hands-on session where Mitch will transform your pen drawing into a digitized version of a Porowhita (Mandala) and incorporating tartan in Adobe Illustrator.
Join Mitchell Manuel as he discusses with Te Awanui Reeder, the works in his exhibition Tartan Meets Koru. Mitchell will discuss the themes of design, pattern and digitisation and how this relates to both Scottish Tartan and the koru design found in Te Ao Māori. Te Awanui will talk about how AI will impact art in the future, including music applications, analysis and in some simple steps, how to avoid IP issues.
Join us to hear a work-in-progress reading from Andi C. Buchanan. Andi will be reading extracts from their draft Young Adult novel, Poison, which explores interdependence, community, and our expectations of self-reliance, and is filled with plants both poisoned and poisonous. Please note: This reading will be NZSL interpreted.
Daniel Beban and Tim Barlow's immersive, interactive sound installation fills the environment of Toi Pōneke gallery for the final exhibition at the Able-Smith Street space.
Co-creators of the 'Shadow Signals' exhibition, Daniel Beban and Tim Barlow will activate the installation in a duo performance, followed by an artist talk discussing the exhibition and other works.
Join artists Lisa Munnelly and Angela Kilford as they chat with Caroline McQuarrie about the works in their exhibition Under, Over and Across. Together these artists will discuss techniques of painting and weaving and the interrelation between material, maker and making.
Get ready for the Wellington Pride festival with an absolutely fabulous headpiece. Artist Charmagne Anthony (Taranaki, Ngāti Hauā) is a Wellington based fashion designer who will help you create a one-off statement piece to wear at the Pride festivities.
Come along to this drop-in style workshop in the gallery with artists - Lisa Munnelly and Angela Kilford to make part of a collaborative raranga artwork. You’ll use off cuts from Lisa’s canvas paintings; that the artists will then teach you to weave, to create a new artwork that will hang in the gallery. This workshop is whānau friendly and would suit anyone interested in working with their hands in a creative way.
Toi Pōneke Arts Centre and Pop Film are delighted to announce writer - Crosby Allen-Jennings has been selected as the 2026 Wellington Write Room Resident with his project Burnout Days.
Exploring the potential of woven structures through textile making, the exhibition by Angela Kilford and Lisa Munnelly titled Under, Over and Across creates a dialogue between painting, raranga and hand-woven works.
Join artist and musician Gemma Thompson and drummer Sam Sherry as they perform as Tondo, responding live to the graphic scores in the exhibition voices notations distortion.
Join Gemma Thompson on a soundwalk from Toi Pōneke Gallery to Central Park in Aro Valley, finishing at Inverlochy House. Participants will draw inspired by sounds heard on the walk. These drawings will then be transformed into simple drypoint prints using recycled Tetra Pak.
Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art was the largest Māori exhibition in the history of Auckland Art Gallery and attracted attendance levels not seen by the gallery since 1989. Chelsea Winstanley’s documentary follows the journey of curator Nigel Borell as he navigates the constraints between institutional authority and Māori self-determination.
Tickets $10 https://events.humanitix.com/2026-1-28-toitu-visual-sovereignty-film-screening
voices notations distortion is the debut solo show by artist and musician Gemma Thompson at Toi Pōneke Gallery 17 Jan - 6 Feb 2026. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros' Sonic Meditations, the exhibition explores her soundwalking practice through graphic scores, realised as drawings, paintings, prints, and sonic compositions. Each mark resonates with its own energy – echoing, layering, and unfolding across the surface.
Toi Pōneke is pleased to announce that writer Andi C. Buchanan has been awarded the d/Deaf and/or Disabled Artist Development Residency for 2026
oroRUArangi is a brand new, exciting collaboration by Māori musicians Horomona Horo and Rameka Tamaki. Both artists are joining together to create a new composition for this performance.
Toi Takeaway 2025 - Pay and Take it away!
To coincide with her exhibition In Each Other’s Pockets, Kapeu artist-in-residence Louise Hill will be in conversation with fellow artist Keri-Mei Zagrobelna (Te Ati Awa, Whānau-a-Apanui).
Join contemporary jeweller Louise Hill for a relaxed, hands-on workshop where you’ll create your own cross-body pocket bag to carry your phone close.
In Each Other’s Pockets opens Friday 24 October 2025 at Toi Pōneke Gallery, Te Aro, Wellington.
Through her playful installation, contemporary jeweller Louise Hill interrogates the politics of pockets; the private spaces that shape how we move through the world, investigating what it means for some to be equipped with the tools they need, while others are not.
20 years at Abel Smith looks back on the tapestry of Toi Pōneke at Abel Smith Street and invites artists, friends, family and guest on a small stroll down memory lane in hopes to build an even stronger step forward into the future. Opens Friday 5:30 24 Oct and is on in the back gallery until Friday 21 Nov 2025.
Toi Pōneke Arts Centre and Pop Film are delighted to announce Elizabeth Hodgson who has been selected to be the Film/TV Producer Intern for the Write Room 2025 - 26.
Our panel of artists from Utu ā Matimati Takatāpui Art Collective will discuss elements of our kaupapa, inspired by our latest magazine. Topics of decolonizing mental health and art spaces within this modern world and society, the importance of our existence as takatāpui and how visibility and solidarity are integral to surviving in this political climate.
Join us for a hands-on wānanga where we’ll learn how to process, and create traditional paint using kōkōwai (earth pigment).
Toi Pōneke Art Centre, WIFT and Massey University are proud to host a special presentation from director Rob Sarkies (Out of the Blue, Pike River, Scarfies) and screenwriter Fiona Samuel (Piece of My Heart, Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story, Pike River) to launch the Wellington Write Room Screenwriter's Residency for 2026.
Toi Pōneke Arts Centre is pleased to announce the 2026 residency program for d/Deaf and/or disabled artists, with a call for submissions. Applications close 5pm Monday 17 November 2025
He Whare Mahana - a warm house, a full house, a cosy kainga to nurture your dreams and the infi nite queer possibilities. Tātou āhuru mōwai, nau mai, haere mai.
Come along to the opening celebration of Te Whare Mahana - A Takatāpui Exhibition. You are invited to our housewarming party, a celebration of queer indigenous love. It’s virgo season, spring is blooming, Mahuru Māori is here, all your queer Māori dreams are possible!
Toi Pōneke Arts Centre and Victoria University’s New Zealand School of Music —Te Kōkī (NZSM) are delighted to announce Daniel Beban as the 2025 Toi Pōneke/ NZSM Sonic Artist-in -Residence.
Join artist Katy Cottrell as she chats with academic researcher Matteo Collina and director of the Victoria University Coastal Ecology Lab – Alice Rogers. Alice and Matteo will talk about their work with marine reserves from a scientific perspective and how this has inspired the artworks by Katy Cottrell and Rick Allender for their exhibition Taputeranga: Above and Below.
Marquetry is the art of ‘drawing’ with wood veneers, cutting intricate jigsaws of imagery and inlaying in, or onto timbers. In three hours have a go at exploring the different veneers, get to know the chisels and knives, and create your own ‘take home’ block (or coaster) having discovered the fundamentals to take it further.
Artists Katy Cottrell and Rick Allender explore the connection between land and sea through intricate works crafted from natural wood veneers.
Toi Pōneke Arts Centre and POP Film are inviting applications for the Write Room Wellington Screenwriter Residency 2026 Applications due by 5pm, Mon 20 October 2025
Applications now open for the Write Room Film/TV Producer Internship 2025 -26
Deadline 5pm, Tues 16 Sept 2025
In the third of three artist’s talks about Azúcar/Sugar, the latest installation from With Lime, join Dr Miki Seifert and Dr Arini Loader at ‘The Colonisers’ Banquet Table’. Dr Seifert will talk about how sugar was transformed from an exotic luxury item into a global ubiquity. Dr Loader will use te reo Māori as a gateway to talk about sugar’s associated health and societal issues along with alcohol and other colonial introductions.
