Marilyn Kohlhase

Marilyn Rhonda Kohlhase MNZM (born 1953) is a New Zealand arts curator and administrator, specialising in Pacific Islands art.[1][2] She has worked with Auckland War Memorial Museum and Creative New Zealand. Kohlhase set up the first uniquely pan-Pacific art gallery and is known as the "art lady" in some circles.

Marilyn Kohlhase

MNZM
Kohlhase in 2023
Born1953 (age 69–70)
Auckland, New Zealand
EducationUniversity of Waikato
Occupation(s)Curator, arts administrator
Known forPromoting the work of artists and art from the Pacific Region

Biography

Kohlhase was born in Auckland, and is of German and Samoan heritage.[3] As she was growing up, she attended Glenbrae Primary School and Glen Innes Intermediate, and then secondary school at Tamaki College.[4] She went to study at the University of Waikato.[4]

She was involved with the Socialist Unity Party, and worked for the Centre of Continuing Education at Auckland University in the 1980s and the Council of Organisations for Relief Service Overseas (CORSO).[2][5]

As an arts administrator, Kohlhase has been on Auckland War Memorial Museum’s Pacific advisory group and the Museums Aotearoa board, leaving in 2018.[3] While Kohlhase was chair of the Pacific Advisory Group, she expressed in a 2014 interview:

"Including Melanesians in the story is part of my agenda. I am a very proud Samoan, yet I am a middle-class internationalist with German heritage."[6]

When she left the museum's Pacific Advisory Group, she joined the Auckland Museum Institute Council as a member so she could continue to promote a Pacific focus. Kahlhase was also for several years on arts boards at Creative New Zealand, including being the chair of the Pacific Arts Committee.[3][7]

In 2007, Kohlhase co-founded with Bridget Marsh a pan-Pacific art gallery, Okaioceanikart, on Karangahape Road, Auckland, after an invitation from artist Fatu Feu'u. The gallery, which represented exclusively contemporary artists of the Pacific and Oceania, is believed to be the first gallery in the world to have this focus.[3][8][9][10] Okaioceanikart gallery closed in 2013.[11] Kohlhase also opened Okai@Reef Gallery with a similar purpose.[11] Kohlhase is known by some as the "art lady".[11]

Some of the artists represented or exhibited by Okaioceanikart include Dagmar Dyck, Leua Latai Leonard, Sylvia Marsters, Abraham Lagi, Daniel Waswas, Kopotama Jacobsen, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Sekio Fuapopo, Brian Feni and Sina Panama.[1]

As a curator, Kohlhase is linked with decolonising art histories alongside others such as Caroline Vercoe, Lisa Taouma, Fulimalo Pereira, Sean Mallon, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Deidre Brown and Teresia Teaiwa (1968–2017).[12]

In the 2023 New Year Honours, Kohlhase was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Pacific arts and education.[13]

References
  1. Punch, Pantograph. "Marilyn Kohlhase". Pantograph Punch. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  2. Kohlhase, Marilyn Rhonda (22 June 2000). "Interview with Marilyn Kohlhase". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  3. "Membership". Auckland Museum Institute.
  4. "Kohlhase, Marilyn Rhonda, 1953–". Tiaki. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  5. "Broadsheet, New Zealand's Feminist Magazine 1972 – 1997". broadsheet.auckland.ac.nz. 36. 1983. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  6. Christophe, A. (2016). Exhibiting connections, connecting exhibitions: constructing trans-Pacific relationships through museum displays in Oceania (2006–2016) (Doctoral dissertation, University of East Anglia).
  7. "Cook Islands a "goldmine of inspiration"". www.scoop.co.nz. 13 March 2003. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  8. "Okaioceanikart". Stuff Events. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  9. Delilkan, Sharu. "Right place, right time – Lifestyle News". NZ Herald. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  10. "Tautai June 2016 by Tautai Pacific Arts Trust – Issuu". issuu.com. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  11. Kohlhase, Marilyn. "The Okaioceanikart Story". Pantograph Punch. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  12. Wilson, Olga Hedwig Janice (2021). Cold Islanders: Moana Pasifika/Oceania Identified Artists Creating and Occupying Respectful Stances of Strength and Confidence in Aotearoa (Thesis thesis). Auckland University of Technology.
  13. "New Year honours list 2023". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
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