Toi Ōtautahi 2025 Arts Workshops: Soft Skills: A panel discussion about the stuff they don’t teach you about the business of being an artist

2025 Arts Workshops - Soft Skills: A panel discussion about the stuff they don’t teach you about the business of being an artist

Wednesday 03 September

5pm - 7pm
Toi Auaha, 5 Worcester Boulevard
Free to attend - register by booking a free ticket through this Humanitix page

Join artists Jamie Te Heuheu and Jen Alexandra, and lawyer and art patron Anna Ryan, for a panel discussion about some of the soft skills needed to navigate the artworld. Our panellists will share a range of stories, personal experiences and approaches to building relationships, hustling shows and work, and working on the business of being an artist.

Whether you’re new to the artworld or were raised in it, this panel discussion will be a generous and honest discussion that explores ways to connect and communicate your work with others, to whatever ends you want to achieve.

Bring your questions and come and enjoy some light refreshments together as we explore some of the unspoken rules of engagement in the artworld.

Workshop schedule: Doors will open at 4.45pm. The workshop will start at 5pm sharp and take 90 minutes. If you cannot attend the whole workshop, you are welcome to come for as much as you can. Pēpi and tamariki are always welcome to attend with you!

About the Panellists:

Jamie Te Heuheu (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) is an artist based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Te Heuheu graduated from the Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury in 2020 with First Class Honours, and in 2021 co-founded The Den, an artist-run space in Christchurch that profiled emerging artists in the city, The Den closed with its final showcase at the Aotearoa Art Fair in 2022. Te Heuheu has exhibited regularly throughout Aotearoa and has contributed to exhibitions in Australia. Te Heuheu is represented by Starkwhite

Te Heuheu’s current series of colour field paintings explores the formal qualities of abstract artmaking, with an emphasis on process and brushwork, to explore how colour, texture, and applied processes can evoke varied moods and feelings while leaving room for the viewer to bring their own experiences and emotions to the work. https://starkwhite.co.nz/artist/jamie-te-heuheu/

Jen Alexandra’s practice combines sculpture, installation and performance to explore the position of the artist as querent, and real and imagined relationships between people, objects, materials and space. It proposes that art can be a way to connect with other realms of experience, interpret a vision – or the idea of a vision – or be a mode of knowledge in itself. Objects, ontologically floating as artefacts and channels for intention, are offered as transitional objects between one place and another.

Jen lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch where she completed an MFA at the University of Canterbury in 2018. Her work has been included in the Arte Laguna Prize (Venice) in 2017, and the Royal Academy of Arts (London) Summer Exhibition 2020. She participated in the 2019 Taitung County Artists Exchange Programme in Taiwan, contributed to the Speaking Surfaces project at ST PAUL St Gallery in 2020, and was an Asia New Zealand Arts Practitioner Fund grant recipient in 2023. Recent projects include, The Veil is Thin, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū 2021/22, and Sisterly at The Dowse Museum 2023, Tie One, The Spells Begun, The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū 2025. Jen was the Olivia Spencer Bower Awardee for 2024. https://jenalexandra.com/

Anna Ryan is a Partner at Lane Neave. She specialises in corporate and commercial law and leads Lane Neave’s competition law team. She routinely advises on the Commerce Act, Fair Trading Act and all aspects of competition and consumer law. Anna is also the principal contact for Lane Neave’s intellectual property practice and acts on a wide range of trade mark, copyright and other intellectual property matters. Anna holds a Masters Degree from the University of Melbourne in Competition and Consumer Protection Law, and Chairs the Advisory Board of the Competition Law and Policy Institute of New Zealand. In 2023, Anna was recognised as an Elite Woman in NZ Lawyer’s annual rankings, and shortlisted for Antitrust/Competition Lawyer of the Year at the 2023 APAC Women in Business Law Awards.

Toi Ōtautahi 2025 Arts Workshops

On the first Wednesday of every month, Toi Ōtautahi hosts free arts development workshops for artists and arts organisations. Want to know more, go to: https://toiotautahi.org.nz/