2025 Pacific Aniva Artist Residency recipient announced

The programme offers an Aotearoa-based Pacific artist or practitioner who identifies as LGBTQIA+/MVPFAFF+ a paid fellowship based at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre in Ngāmotu New Plymouth to create a new body of work.

“We were very impressed by both the number and the strength of the artists who applied for the Aniva residency opportunity, and we are honoured by the level of support and openness of the Pasifika creative community in engaging with this opportunity and the process to identify the successful practitioner,” says Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Rinagatohu/Director Dr Zara Stanhope.

The residency sought artists who could demonstrate successful artistic practice across one of the fields of visual art, heritage art, design, digital art, writing, public programming, performance or production, or curating.  

“We are delighted that the Aniva Residency will contribute toward looking beyond the Gallery’s 55-year commitment to the visual arts and exploring cross-disciplinary practice, expanding the potential for new conversations and connections with many communities including those connected with Te Moana-nui a Kiwa. A critical component of this residency is working with Taranaki’s Pacific and Queer communities to celebrate and communicate their cultures, strengths and identities in making a new relationship with the residency artist,” Zara says.

Supported by Creative New Zealand, the three-month residency for 2025 has been awarded to Te Whanganui-a-Tara-based multidimensional fa'afafine artist and entrepreneur Lindah Lepou, whose work spans performance art, visual art, spatial temporal art, and fashion design.

As a Pacific Couture designer, Lepou has exhibited alongside the likes of Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Chanel, and has gained much acclaim through the World of Wearable Arts. In 2022 Lepou was announced the inaugural Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Laureate by the Arts Foundation. The Gallery is excited to be supporting Lepou.

"The Pacific ANIVA Artist Residency is an exciting opportunity for me and another great example of how valuable a diverse and inclusive approach is to art, creating a more multidimensional picture of our innovation, our unique culture, and 'human being' identity,” says Lindah Lepou.

“As a fa'afafine person, I don't do ‘one or the other’...I am all of the above!"

Creative New Zealand Manager Pacific Arts, Enterprise Kawika Aipa has welcomed the announcement.

“We’re excited to see the Aniva Residency hosted for the first time in partnership with Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and to support Lindah as the inaugural Resident artist. The residency offers a dedicated space for MVPFAFF+ artists to reflect, create, and connect in ways that affirm their identity and practice. It advances our Pacific Arts Strategy 2023–2028, which prioritises Pacific arts including our whole village" says Kawika Aipa, Manager Enterprise, Pacific Arts at Creative New Zealand,” Kawika says.

Lindah will undertake the residency in 2025.