Monica Brewster Evening season 2 speakers announced
The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery|Len Lye Centre will welcome Will Hansen, Tusiata Avia, Kimberley Moulton and Te Kawehau Hoskins to its popular Monica Brewster Evenings programme for season 2 of 2025.
The event series was introduced by the Gallery in 1999, taking its name from the Gallery’s founding donor Monica Brewster, nee Govett, who left a significant bequest to establish a contemporary art gallery, seeking to bring aspirational art and ideas to New Plymouth. Monica Brewster Evenings continue that spirit, inviting an array of leading creative thinkers, opinion leaders, artists and practitioners to the monthly event.
“This year the Monica Brewster Evening programme explores cultural practices through the themes of resilience – from March to June – and resistance from July to October,” says Cultural Experiences, Public Programs and Learning Lead Lleah Smith.
“Our invited speakers will examine how creative thinking and action can endure adversity while
challenging and transforming inequitable conditions – they challenge the status quo through creative, cultural, and intellectual resistance.”
“Whether through poetry, research, or community leadership, each speaker offers a unique perspective on how we might navigate systems of power with courage, care, and clarity. Join us for thoughtful evenings that ask what it means to resist—and to reimagine—a more just world,” Lleah says.
Monica Brewster Evenings are generously sponsored by Govett Quilliam the Lawyers, with event support from L’Epicure catering, Michael Radich Winemerchant, Shining Peak Brewing, Pete’s Natural and Planta Mate soft drinks.
Events are on the second Tuesday of the month, from 6pm. Tickets to all events can be secured at the Gallery’s reception or at www.shop.govettbrewster.com
Will Hansen, Tuesday 15 July
Will Hansen unpacks what a transfeminist framework entails under the theme of resistance, showing how queer radicals forged new languages of liberation and employed playful, confrontational protest tactics. Drawing on research into trans activism in Aotearoa from the 1970s to 2010s, Will invites you to participate, share your perspectives, and help shape a richer, more inclusive understanding of our collective history through radical community engagement and the recovery of overlooked narratives. Will will be in conversation with Wesley Milne. Buy tickets here.
Tusiata Avia MNZM, Tuesday 12 August
Following the international triumph of Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, join us for an electrifying Monica Brewster Evening with the inimitable Tusiata Avia MNZM. Born and raised in Ōtautahi with proud Samoan heritage, Avia has ignited stages from Moscow to Aotearoa. Across four acclaimed collections, including the eagerly anticipated The Savage Coloniser Book, she has reshaped contemporary verse. Expect powerful, candid reflections on identity and colonisation, woven with wit and wisdom. Buy tickets here.
Kimberley Moulton, Tuesday 9 September
Yorta Yorta curator and writer Kimberley Moulton, is the curator of the 2025 TarraWarra Biennale and a bold voice in reshaping how institutions honour Country, community and collections. With a practice rooted in regeneration, disruption and restoration, Moulton centres ceremony, kinship-led rematriation and community co-creation to transform museums into living archives of cultural resurgence. Hear how restoring the spirit of First Peoples looks in practice—grounded in ancestral knowledge, contemporary insight and shared custodianship. Kimberley Moulton will be in conversation with Lleah Smith. Buy tickets here.
Te Kawehau Hoskins, Tuesday 14 October
Te Kawehau Hoskins (Ngāti Hau, Ngāpuhi) works to reimagine institutions as sites of indigenising work. As Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori at Waipapa Taumata Rau, she leads with Māori thinking and relational practice. Relationships may be conflictual or committed, but the return to engagement holds open the possibility for tātou—not sameness, but an institution that becomes all of ours. Buy tickets here.