Marilyn Rhonda Kohlhase (born 1953) is a New Zealand arts curator and administrator, specialising in Pacific Islands art. She has worked with

Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum (), also known as Auckland Museum, is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building constructed in the 1920s and 1950s, stands on Observatory ...

and

Creative New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government established in 1963. It invests in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes a ...

. Kohlhase set up the first uniquely pan-Pacific art gallery and is known as the "art lady" in some circles.

Biography

Kohlhase was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, and is of German and Samoan heritage. As she was growing up, she attended Glenbrae Primary School and Glen Innes Intermediate, and then secondary school at Tamaki College. She went to study at the

University of Waikato The University of Waikato (), established in 1964, is a Public university, public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in nume ...

. She was involved with the

Socialist Unity Party The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Ma ...

, and worked for the Centre of Continuing Education at Auckland University in the 1980s and the Council of Organisations for Relief Service Overseas (CORSO). As an arts administrator, Kohlhase has been on Auckland War Memorial Museum’s Pacific advisory group and the Museums Aotearoa board, leaving in 2018. 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."

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. Kohlhase was also for several years on arts boards at

, including being the chair of the Pacific Arts Committee. In 2007, Kohlhase co-founded with Bridget Marsh a pan-Pacific art gallery,

Okaioceanikart Okaioceanikart, also known as Okai was a pan-Pacific commercial art gallery based in what was Langham Hotel Mall, situated on Karangahape Road, Auckland, New Zealand. The name Okaioceanikart combined ideas of kai (food) for the soul, kart (inter ...

, on

Karangahape Road Karangahape Road (commonly known as K' Road) is one of the main streets in the Auckland CBD, central business district (CBD) of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area – and subsequent flig ...

, Auckland, after an invitation from artist

Fatu Feu'u Fatu Akelei Feu'u (born 1946) is a noted Samoan painter from the village of Poutasi in the district of Falealili in Samoa. He has established a reputation as the elder statesman of Pacific art in New Zealand. Biography Feu'u emigrated to N ...

. Kohlhase at the time has worked with

and Bridget as mentor in business. 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. Okaioceanikart gallery closed in 2013. Kohlhase also opened Okai@Reef Gallery with a similar purpose. Kohlhase is known by some as the "art lady". 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. 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). Her interviews are held in

National Library of New Zealand The National Library of New Zealand () is charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga) Act 2003). Under the ...

. In the

2023 New Year Honours The 2023 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

, Kohlhase was appointed a

Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit () is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ...

, for services to Pacific arts and education.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohlhase, Marilyn 1953 births Living people People from Auckland University of Waikato alumni New Zealand curators Arts administrators Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit