Media Release
26 March, 2009

Hawaii residency for Maori artist

Artist and Waikato University lecturer Donna Campbell has been awarded a residency at the University of Hawaii. She will spend two months at the Kamakakūokalani Centre for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii on Oahu where she’ll work on creating a new body of work and at the same time share her skills and experience with local staff and students.

The residency, which is supported by Te Waka Toi and Creative New Zealand, is highly contested, and Campbell says she’s over the moon to receive it. “My real passion is our Māori fibre arts and how these traditional techniques and materials can be used to evolve the art form without losing integrity in the production process.”

While in Hawaii she’ll be working on creating a series of adornments for the body from natural and found objects in the environment, in this case Oahu. “I will be creating new work that reflects the Hawaiian and Māori aesthetic - in form, materials and design.”

Donna Campbell has just returned from Qatar where she was one of the professional speakers at the Mousharaka/Icograda Design Conference at the Virginia Commonwealth University there, where she spoke about the collaborative nature of Māori fibre arts.

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