A final message from the Board

After nearly ten years of commissioning new writing on Aotearoa artists’ work being shown internationally, Contemporary HUM will stop publishing new pieces from October 2025, and the always popular Calendar section will cease to be updated. Our website will become something it has always been: a rich resource, an archive of incredible talent, writing and creative inquiry, but it will be finite, rather than perpetual.

In addition to publishing, the Contemporary HUM crew have been connecting, brokering, advising and supporting artists, curators, writers and collectors; both folk from Aotearoa heading into international realms, and international folk visiting Aotearoa. Much of this mahi is less visible and mostly unpaid.

Since our public funding decreased in 2023, we have been working incredibly hard behind the scenes, connecting with artists, writers and curators, re-evaluating our purpose and our business model, working with incredible supporters and stakeholders, undertaking great partnerships that brought revenue into the organisation and enabled mutual aims to be met. Our tiny team and voluntary board has been proactive, analytical, entrepreneurial and stubbornly optimistic. We wanted to uphold key aspects – free access to content, editorial independence, quality content where writers and editors are paid appropriately, covering projects in-depth and that were not being written about anywhere else, and generating new content (writing and podcasts).

We have looked at it from every angle, but cannot survive in our current form without a baseline of public funding. Our last four applications for Creative New Zealand organisational funding have not been successful, despite only positive feedback from assessors, and the most kick-ass support letters from artists and other cultural producers, plus healthy engagement and uptake stats. Individual giving has helped enormously (individual donors and crowd funding alike). Paid partnerships have also been crucial. Sadly, we cannot continue to tread water. We know we are not alone in this time of struggle. Many respected friends and peers have needed to pause or shut up shop. Artists are struggling, yet their voices, visions and provocations are needed now as much as ever. 

While this project comes to a close, our belief in the importance of international exchange and cross-cultural collaboration remains unwavering. As trustees, we are continuing to talk with and listen to the sector, about ways we can work together to nourish and support Aotearoa visual artists working internationally. The work is definitely not over, and while we hold deep respect for the sustained effort already undertaken by Aotearoa artists and cultural workers to establish, build and maintain these international peer relationships, the opportunity to advance this crucial conversation now rests with the wider sector. 

This website will remain a comprehensive record of Aotearoa’s creative talent active in the global arts landscape, free and available for all to access, and we look forward to what collaborations the future may hold.

Together with the HUM team, we are eternally grateful for your support and engagement.

Mā te wā,

Benjamin Work, Heather Galbraith, Hiraani Himona, Jude Chambers, Pauline Autet and Susan Hitchiner, Trustees of the Contemporary HUM Arts Trust

Navigating the Contemporary HUM archive 

WRITING
Since 2016, we've commissioned over 180+ long-form publications, providing analysis and context often unavailable elsewhere.

Our commitment to quality, critical discussion is reflected in the HUM Writing Guidelines and Style Guide, a resource available for writers, editors and students, that offers guidance on spelling, formatting, referencing, and the use of subject matter relating to Māori artists, concepts, language and histories.

→ Browse our full archive of publications here
→ Access the HUM Writing Guidelines and Style Guide here

CALENDAR
The Contemporary HUM Calendar is a centralised record of Aotearoa’s creative talent active on the world stage since 2016, featuring 1,100+ listings that you can filter by city, year and more.

→ View our international calendar listings here

PROJECTS
We've expanded the conversation on Aotearoa arts abroad through audio and special projects, releasing 9 podcast episodes with artists and curators, each published as a transcript with images.

→ Listen to Crossing Currents: Aotearoa New Zealand Artists in Venice
→ Listen to Crossing Currents: Sarah Hudson’s participation in the Naoshima Art Residency & Setouchi Triennale


For Contemporary HUM's supporters, our team also produced 31 digital HUMcard mailouts, bringing exclusive, behind-the-scenes images and a personal text from Aotearoa arts practitioners directly to their inbox.

→ View all 31 original HUMcard PDFs here
→ Learn more about the HUMcard series on the project page


Moving beyond the digital space, Contemporary HUM also launched 13 partnerships and public events to cultivate debate and build lasting networks. This has included panel discussions in London and Berlin as well as our in-depth live coverage of major international art events.

→ For live coverage of the 57th, 58th, 59th and 60th Venice Biennale vernissages, visit this project page
→ For extended coverage of Sharjah Biennial 16, visit this project page
→ Explore all special projects and partnerships

INDEX
With the launch of our custom-built website in 2021, we introduced unique navigational tools to make our large archive easily accessible. This includes an index of 600+ arts practitioners active across 350+ locations, alongside 190+ contributing writers and editors. 

→ Browse Contemporary HUM by artist, contributor, location or topic

Words from our community

We are profoundly thankful to the community of artists, writers, curators, editors, advisors, donors, partners—and you—whose enthusiasm and support made our work possible.

“Contemporary HUM has been instrumental in connecting my work into a global network—I’ve experienced the team’s generosity and willingness to make personal introductions to colleagues, as well as helping source excellent writers who were able to engage with my shows in Lyon and Budapest, which is testament to the depth of their networks.”

• Dane Mitchell, artist, Naarm Melbourne and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

“We are so grateful for how [the publication] adds such an important layer to our work, and will be an enduring record of a show that has felt really positive and important for us.”

• Amanda Fauteux and Miranda Bellamy, artists, Ōtepoti Dunedin and Mi’kma’ki territory Sackville, New Brunswick
   
   

“There is such a dearth of [critical writing] in our region and Contemporary HUM holds an important place because of this encouragement. The rigour and attention to detail with which [my] piece was edited was very special and a privilege to experience as a writer.”

• Emma O’Neill, writer, Sydney Gadigal Lands

“It’s necessary to have art written about in ways that extend the reasons why artists make it in the first place. The time, effort, energy and care I’ve witnessed [at Contemporary HUM] is an amazing asset and contribution to arts and culture.”

• Jack Gray, artist, choreographer, dancer and educator, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

“[Contemporary HUM’s] commissions create solid documentation for the art history of Aotearoa happening internationally. We have no other platform doing quite what HUM does on the world stage.”

• Nathan Pōhio, artist and curator, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

“Contemporary HUM’s network infrastructure creates depth and meaning to [art] experiences, often exceeding our expectations and hopes for the public reach of art and its possible talking points. There are all these tiny grains of brilliance coalescing online in the HUM archive, which make up a vibrant and—critically, I feel—vocal image of the arts in Aotearoa.”

• Richard Frater, artist, Berlin

“The tradition of western arts criticism can often feel like a colonial exercise, where the complexity of our work can be decontextualised and rinsed through a filter of abstraction and misinterpretation. Contemporary HUM offers an independent voice within the international arts market, as an organisation with a competent grasp on the sophisticated context.”

• Tanu Gago MNZM, artist, Maungarei Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

“It’s rare, especially in performance, to have such in-depth engagement with the work. As an artist it makes you feel incredibly respected, seen and appreciated.”

• Amit Noy, writer and choreographer, Marseille and Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington