Te Tuhi Announces The Appointment Of Liam Jacobson As The New Curatorial Intern At Parnell Project Space

Beginning in July 2025 and for the following 18 months, Liam Jacobson will be the fifth early-career curator to develop their own project at Te Tuhi’s Parnell Project Space.

Liam Jacobson (Kāi Tahu) is an artist and writer, raised in South Auckland. Jacobson has written alongside a range of artists, galleries and publications, and has toured poetry and theatre across the country and overseas. Jacobson is currently interested in work that is strange, honest and fun. He holds a BA in Sociology and Film. Jacobson's poetry collection was published by Dead Bird Books in 2023.

On being offered the 2025–2026 curatorial internship, Jacobson said:

“I’m excited and pretty nervous for this role, but am keen to consider play, resistance and manaakitaka as core impulses of the gallery and project-space. I want to help facilitate a motley as programme, by bringing artists together across a range of disciplines.”

About the internship

Te Tuhi’s Curatorial Internship at Parnell Project Space is a unique opportunity for an emerging professional to engage in supported and sustained research and curatorial experimentation in the field of contemporary art. This pioneering model provides a major platform for curatorial development, benefiting from Te Tuhi’s reputation as an experimental, artist-focussed institution known for nurturing, showcasing and reimagining visual arts practice.

The Internship offers the opportunity for someone to curate an independent space, developing a programme of exhibitions and events across a period of 18 months, including an initial 3-month research period. The independent project space at Parnell gives the curatorial intern the opportunity to develop and present new work by diverse artists and the location, in a public train station, removes barriers to access for audiences who are not comfortable in traditional public galleries.

Inaugurated in 2020, Te Tuhi’s curatorial internship has so far offered four early career curators the mentorship and resources needed to develop their own curatorial project within Parnell Project Space. Previous curatorial interns are:

Jordan Davey-Emms (2024–2025)

Felixe Laing (2023–2024)

Jasmine Tuiā (2021)

James Tapsell-Kururangi (2020–2021).

About Parnell Project Space

Parnell Project Space is an art space which is part of Te Tuhi’s Studio complex, within the station building on the platform at Parnell Train Station. Located in the heart of Parnell, an inner Auckland City suburb, the studio and gallery complex has easy access to public transport through the rail and bus network.

Fore more information, click here: https://tetuhi.art/parnell-project-space/

About Te Tuhi

Te Tuhi is a leading platform for contemporary art in Aotearoa New Zealand, with a programme consciously and continually shaped towards rigorous, adventurous and socially engaged artistic experimentation. Te Tuhi’s primary focus is on commissioning both national and international artists to make new work by creating stimulating contexts for artists to respond to and work within.

Te Tuhi presents work in its galleries in Pakuranga and Parnell, around Auckland and Aotearoa, internationally and online. Te Tuhi offers artists and curators opportunities to develop their practice through studios, awards, residencies and internships both in Aotearoa and overseas. Integrated with its exhibitions, Te Tuhi provides public programmes for general audiences and for schools.

Te Tuhi has been embedded in its local community for 50 years, delivering arts and cultural experiences for schools, young people, community groups and people of all backgrounds and ages. Arts Out East is Te Tuhi’s community arts brokering programme for the Howick Local Board area in East Auckland. Te Tuhi operates O Wairoa Marae, an urban marae in Howick; Te Tuhi Café, Aotearoa’s first training café for people with intellectual disabilities; and Te Taiwhanga Taiohi, East Auckland’s Youth Space in Botany Town Centre. Te Tuhi’s building in Pakuranga also hosts a vast range of independent community groups.

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