Artist Residency
The Forrester Gallery & Mahika Kai Mahika Toi's Artist Residency provides artists with the opportunity to spend dedicated time in te rohe o Waitaki while developing new creative work.
The inaugural residency was undertaken by photographer Sara McIntyre, who spent two months in 2025 living in a seaside cottage in Kākanui and exploring its landscape and community, drawing on both her personal connection to the area and her long-standing photographic practice. Her time in the region resulted in the exhibition Sara McIntyre: Kākahi to Kākanui with the Forrester Gallery, an exhibition of photographs that captures a portrait of a community, the people, their homes, and the environment.
The residency has continued to develop, with the 2026 Kākanui Artists in Residence being Dr Areta Wilkinson and photographer Mark Adams. Wilkinson, a Kāi Tahu jeweller and sculptor, and Adams, a Pākehā photographer, have collaborated for more than a decade, combining Mātauraka Māori and museological approaches in their work with taoka and natural-history collections. Their residency explores the social, cultural and natural histories of Waitaki and will result in an exhibition at Forrester Gallery & Mahika Kai Mahika Toi in May 2027.
The residency is supported by the Friends of the Forrester Gallery and a grant from the John Westwood Christie Trust, while the cottage is generously provided by local Chris Barnes.
Image: Changing Shed, Kākanui Beach, 2025, Sara McIntyre. Courtesy of the artist and Anna Miles Gallery.