Join us for some great conversation over coffee and croissants with four curators of The Room. Some of New Zealand's top design talent, curator decorative art and design at Te Papa Justine Olsen, curator and writer Emma Ng, curator Ane Tonga and interior designer Rufus Knight  will discuss The Room. They will reflect on the role design and ornamentation play in defining place.

Together the curators will share how personal memory and lived experience, documentary research, private and public collections, new commissioned work and the commercial fields of object design all come together under one roof for this major exhibition.

Coffee and croissants will be provided. Coffee pouring from 10am and talk begins at 10.30am. Attendance is $8 (plus service fees) and places are limited, so please book online here. Email info@objectspace.org.nz for group bookings.

Thanks Studio Italia, Allpress, Amano and Hobson Wealth.

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Justine Olsen is Curator Decorative Art & Design at Te Papa. Justine Olsen’s expertise lies in decorative arts and design, with particular reference to New Zealand, both historical and contemporary. Current research includes New Zealand’s contribution to modernism and to the arts and crafts movement.

Ane Tonga is an artist, curator and writer. She has undertaken curatorial roles across Aotearoa which includes her former post as the Lead Exhibitions Curator at Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa. She has examined notions of gender and feminism in Tongan society through a photographic investigation of nifo koula (gold teeth). The 2018 autumn edition of Art New Zealand features ‘Sissy That Walk’, a piece written by Ane on art and fashion collective The Pacific Sisters. Their exhibition Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists was on display at Te Papa Tongawera.

Rufus Knight was born in 1986 in Opotiki, New Zealand. At Victoria University's School of Architecture and Design in Wellington, he undertook studies in Interior Architecture after which he held an Associate position at award-winning practice Fearon Hay Architects. Following working terms abroad in Europe, notably for Vincent Van Duysen Architects in Antwerp, he opened his own Auckland-based studio, Knight Associates, concentrating on Interior Architecture and Design in 2016.

Emma Ng is a writer and curator from Auckland. She lived in Wellington for seven years, studying at Victoria University before becoming the 2013 Blumhardt Curatorial Intern at the Dowse Art Museum. Between 2014 and 2016, she was the Curator and Manager at Enjoy Public Art Gallery, where she oversaw a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, publications, and events. Emma has written for publications such as Art New Zealand, Art Asia Pacific and The Pantograph Punch. Emma graduated with a master’s degree in design research and criticism from the School of Visual Arts in New York.