Dame Doreen’s Gift is awarded annually by the Foundation to two outstanding makers whose careers would be significantly assisted by the receipt of a Gift. One Gift is awarded to a maker who has moved beyond the ‘emerging’ stage and one Gift is awarded to a mid-career maker. In awarding Dame Doreen’s Gifts the Foundation aims to provide encouragement to committed and outstanding makers whose achievements have garnered the admiration and respect of peers, sector leaders and institutions.

The Blumhardt Foundation’s Purpose is to Advance New Zealand’s craft/object art sector. The aim of the Blumhardt Fund is to enhance New Zealanders’ access to the work of outstanding contemporary New Zealand craft/object art practitioners and to support the practice of outstanding makers by supporting the acquisition of their work by New Zealand public art galleries and museums.

The Blumhardt Foundation is delighted to announce the first recipients of the newly established Blumhardt Fund are The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, The Otago Museum, Dunedin and The Suter Gallery, Nelson. The Blumhardt Fund provides a dollar for dollar subsidy to enable participating art museums to acquire works made by outstanding contemporary New Zealand craft/object art practitioners.

“The foundations contribution of $25,000 per annum to our Blumhardt Fund partners ensures at least a $50,000 spend in the craft object art sector. This is a highly strategic move on the foundations part to firstly support outstanding New Zealand contemporary practitioners and to ensure that New Zealanders have access to high quality contemporary craft in public institutions” says Blumhardt Foundation Chair Philip Clarke.

The foundation has entered into four year agreements with our three partners which will lead to a $200,000 injection to be spent exclusively on acquisitions by living artists over this period. We believe this will tremendously stimulate the craft/object art sector at a time when many artists have lost opportunities.

We believe it is important for art museums to be active collectors of contemporary culture.

Quote from Karl Chitham, Director, Dowse Art Museum
“The Dowse Art Museum has a reputation for fostering and collecting New Zealand studio craft. This generous funding from the Blumhardt Foundation towards new acquisitions will allow us to extend our collection to include even more makers and across a greater diversity of disciplines and approaches. This will make an incredible difference to our collection over the coming years and will help grow opportunities for the studio craft sector in Aotearoa.”

Quote from Ian Griffin, Director, Otago Museum
We are absolutely thrilled to have been selected as one of the Blumhardt Foundation’s partners. Our ambitions to develop Otago Museum’s New Zealand craft collections entirely match Dame Doreen Blumhardt’s aims in establishing the Foundation. This partnership will enable us to consider the acquisition and display of more substantial works by artists already represented, and to expand into some new areas as well.

Quote from Julie Catchpole, Director, The Suter Art Gallery
Nelson is a region with a long history and strong focus on craft and The Suter has long prioritised craft in our collection. With the generous support of the Blumhardt Fund we will be able to be more ambitious in our acquisition of a broader range of makers and media. We are excited to partner with the Blumhardt Foundation to support, highlight and advance the best craftspeople in Aotearoa.

How to apply

To be advised in 2024

The Blumhardt Curator Programme The Blumhardt Foundation is committed to resourcing opportunities that increase craft/object curatorial capability. With the support of Creative New Zealand, the Foundation is currently piloting its new programme the Blumhardt Curator Programme. This new programme builds on the experience of the former Dowse-based Blumhardt-CNZ Curatorial Internship and, we believe, better meets current sector needs. Our new programme will be different to the Internship in terms of;

· being contestable which means that opportunities for curators will move around the country rather than always being in one place

· providing more flexible opportunities for a wider range of curatorial voices

· paying curators at fairer rates.

Currently two pilot projects are happening at the Dowse Art Museum and the Sarjeant Gallery involving freelance curators Dr Bronwyn Lloyd and Milly Mitchell-Anyon. Both projects are practically trialling our new approach before we formally launch the Blumhardt Curator Programme.