Recipients of the Grace Butler Foundation Award

2024/25 Melissa Macleod

Melissa Macleod is based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, her practice encompassing sculpture, photography, performance and more, in public galleries and artist-run spaces. The panel commented in their decision that “Melissa’s proposal was ambitious but achievable, driven by a deep love and care for her community and this whenua. Her experience and long career making her an asset to Ara over the residency period and a great role model for ākonga (a student) to look to over that time.” Read More

2022 Ana Iti (Te Rarawa and Pākehā) 

Working with video, text, installations and sculpture her work explores and reconsiders Aotearoa’s histories, identities and the representation of Māori histories within the built environment, and the museum as an institution and its archives. Ana Iti’s work is held in a number of public institutions, including Te Papa Tongarewa and the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, and has featured in exhibitions that include Takoto at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, (2020), and Swallowing Geography at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery, (2021). Read more

2020 Lousie Palmer

Louise Palmer is senior lecturer in Sculpture at the University of Canterbury School Of Fine Arts. She has a MVA (Sculpture), Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture), University of Canterbury. In 2011 she undertook residency in Studio Residency, OPEKTA Ateliers, Cologne, Germany. Louise has had her work exhibited in New Zealand, Australia and Germany.  Read more

2018  Zina Swanson

Zina Swanson graduated from the University of Canterbury's School of Fine Arts in 2004. In 2013 she was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow and in 2014 undertook a month-long residency in New York facilitated by Apexart, Tribecca. Her work is held in the collections of the Christchurch Art Gallery, University of Canterbury and the Hocken Collection. Read more...