Trustee Emerita Liz Stringer. Photo by Tessa Chrisp for thisnzlife.co.nz

Trustee Emerita Liz Stringer. Photo by Tessa Chrisp for thisnzlife.co.nz

Liz Stringer Curatorial Internship

Liz Stringer Curatorial internship was established in 2016 as an opportunity for aspiring curators to:

  • gain valuable experience that can help boost them into a career in the arts

  • develop hands-on curatorial, collection and project management skills

  • curate one exhibition featuring works from the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Collection

  • develop skills and experience across the wide range of activities that take place in a busy public art gallery, including exhibition production, research, artwork selection, interpretation and public programme development

  • contribute new perspectives, connections and appreciation of portraiture to the Gallery

The Internship is part-time (approx. 8 hours a week) for approximately for 6-7 months over the course of a year and is supported by a stipend generously donated by Liz Stringer.

Applicants must have a tertiary qualification in art history, museum studies, fine arts or a related subject, or have relevant equal experience.

Interns

2025 Matthew Whiteman

2024 Maddie Brooks Gillespie

2023 Karis Evans

2022 Brooke Pou

2021 Lizzie Errington

2020 Paul Johnston

2019 Georgie Keyse

2018 Robert Laking

2017 Nicola Caldwell and Peter Derksen

 

Applications for the 2026 Curatorial internship are now open.

How to apply

Applicants must submit a proposal for an exhibition in the NZPG Front Gallery space with a 200 word concept. The concept should recontextualise items from the portrait gallery’s collection with a fresh perspective.  Proposals should include a list of 10-20 proposed artworks featuring works selected from the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Collection and other local public and private collections (ie. Victoria University, Wellington City Council Collection, The Dowse, regional gallery collections, institutional collections, The Fletcher Trust Collection, The Arts House Trust Collection, as well as Artists and Private Dealers’ collections).

To request a job description or a plan of the Gallery please email  admin@nzportraitgallery.org.nz 

To apply send your exhibition proposal, cover letter and CV with the subject line “Curatorial Internship application” to: admin@nzportraitgallery.org.nz  by 5pm Monday 24 April 2026.

Download job description
Download floorplan


Exhibitions curated by our Interns

 
Featured
A Horse Walks Into A Bar: Humour and Portraiture in Aotearoa
Dec 11
A Horse Walks Into A Bar: Humour and Portraiture in Aotearoa

A Horse Walks Into A Bar: Humour and Portraiture in Aotearoa is curated by Liz Stringer Curatorial Intern for 2025, Matthew Whiteman.  Reaching across a half-century of portraiture in Aotearoa, this exhibition offers a potted history of how painters, photographers and video artists have snuck punchlines into the white cubes of the gallery, and to what end.

Image: Maurice Bennett, Self, 2010. 2275 pieces of toast, PVA and 2 pot lacquer on painted board. Collection of New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata

Background Matters: Portraiture and Place in Aotearoa New Zealand
Dec 12
Background Matters: Portraiture and Place in Aotearoa New Zealand

A picture is a whole world unto itself.

Step beyond the frame and see what you find. Background Matters asks what can be revealed when we view the sitter of a portrait in the expanded field of their surroundings. In bringing the background to the fore, this exhibition subverts the hierarchy of subject and setting to consider the portraiture of Aotearoa New Zealand from a fresh vantage point.

Image: Nicolette Page, Carmen, Oil on board, 2012. Collection New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Gift of the artist

Love and Marriage: Images of Romantic Unions
Dec 14
Love and Marriage: Images of Romantic Unions

Love and marriage may be universal, but their mutual inclusivity is not. What can a wedding photograph tell us about the love shared between two people? How can portraiture better inform us about the experience of being in love? 

Authors of Aotearoa
Dec 15
Authors of Aotearoa

Authors of Aotearoa focuses on the people who have shaped our country’s literary scene.

Curated by Liz Stringer Intern 2022 Brooke Pou.

Image: Susan Wilson, Witi Ihimaera, 2014. New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata Collection.

Unfinished Portraits
Dec 10
Unfinished Portraits

This exhibition focuses on the unfinished portrait, which the New Zealand Portrait Gallery has numerous examples of within its collection.

Image: Leonard Mitchell, Mary-Annette Hay, 1945. NZPG Collection.

Portraits of Power/Portraits as Power
Dec 17
Portraits of Power/Portraits as Power

This exhibition asks: how are portraits utilised as tools of state and institutional power? and, how can portraiture be used in ways that undermine or subvert systems of power?

Image: Liz Maw, Elizabeth, 1999, Oil on board, Private collection

Everything Old is New Again: The Turnbull Library at 100
Sep 17
Everything Old is New Again: The Turnbull Library at 100

This exhibition celebrates the ongoing relevance and standing of the Alexander Turnbull Library, 100 years after it first opened.

Image: Gottfried Lindauer, Mrs. Ngahui Rangitakaiwaho of Wairarapa, Dec 21st 180 (ATL ref.G- 515) courtesy Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

Not Just My Face!
Dec 19
Not Just My Face!

Works that defy the conventions of traditional portraiture and explore ways of communicating diverse identities through portraiture.

Curated by Georgie Keyse

Image: Frances Hodgkins, Still life: Self-portrait c.1935, oil on panel, collection of the Museum of Te Papa Tongarewa

Poutokomanawa: The Carmen Rupe Generation
Sep 20
Poutokomanawa: The Carmen Rupe Generation

Poutokomanawa features portraits and stories of the transgender women of Carmen’s generation including Chrissy Witoko, Georgina Beyer and Dana de Milo, celebrating their role as poutokomanawa for the community.

Image: Nicolette Page, Carmen 2012, oil on canvas, collection of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata. Gift of the Artist. Photograph: Jess O’Brien

Co-curated by Chanel Hati, Talei Langley and Georgie Keyse

Reflections on the Self
Dec 21
Reflections on the Self

A look at artists’ self-portraits, which allow great freedom for artists to express their current moods, thoughts, feeling, and style. These artworks appear like diary entries, as they reflect the artist's present state of mind.

Curated by Robert Laking

Image: Alan Pearson, Self-portrait, Collection New Zealand Portrait Gallery

Worn Identities
Sep 28
Worn Identities

This exhibition asks what meaning is conveyed by the choice of clothing in a portrait?

Curated by Robert Laking

Portrait Plus
Nov 7
Portrait Plus

Portrait+ brings together an eclectic selection of New Zealand’s creative women, pairing their portraits with their works. We hope to expand on the notion of portraiture as a medium of likeness and identity - especially in the case of artists with their creative expression offering an alternative representation of self.

Image: Nigel Brown, Dame Gillian Whitehead at Dusky, 2008 Acrylic on board, New Zealand Portrait Gallery

EYE TO EYE
Sep 8
EYE TO EYE

Direct and uncompromising, the portraits in Eye to Eye explore the dynamics of looking shared between artist and subject, subject and viewer.