About us
For artists and those working with artists: Rob Garrett Contemporary Fine Art (RGCFA) is an art management and consultancy company committed to arts development, innovation and excellence in the visual arts. We provide advisory services and practical hands-on support to artists, arts businesses and not-for-profits, government and public sector organisations, arts lovers and others in the arts sector.
For collectors: We represent a growing and exciting portfolio of artists and we work closely with collectors to source the very best work for your art collections. Viewings can be arranged by appointment and you can also join our mailing list to hear about our innovative exhibitions such as our Pop-Up Gallery concept (first presented by us in Newmarket, Auckland, for 7 days, 18-24 December 2009). Find out more about our portfolio of artists here...
We make the complex simple
Our extensive experience in the visual arts and specialist knowledge resources ensure that we can assist with every aspect of your project – from complete end-to-end management, through to refining touches. Our flexible, consultative structure ensures you have the expert advice you need exactly when and how you need it.
When to use us
When you need specialist knowledge in any area of the visual arts
When you require independent and impartial advice on any aspect of contemporary art
When you need assistance managing the logistics of any visual arts project
When you need an international perspective on the development of any visual arts project
Our work includes
- Arts project management and commissioning:
- Commissioning brief development / refinement
- Opportunity matching for artists
- Budgets
- Liaison between artists and commissioners
- Site-selection and artist-selection advice and support
- Project management
- Audience development and engagement
- Curating public art projects and exhibitions
- Policy review, development, writing
- Writing and speaking (articles, catalogue essays, exhibition reviews, floor talks, forums)
- Communications (arts PR, media and marketing)
- Services for artists:
- Research:
- Sector and stakeholder consultations (interviews, surveys, focus groups)
- Preparing background documents
- Identifying examples of best practice
- Public art feasibility studies (sites, artist-selection, gifts)
- Recruitment services and advice for organisations seeking arts professionals
We have worked with...
Art collectors
Art collector groups
Art Fairs International Magazine
Art New Zealand Magazine
Art News New Zealand Magazine
Art World Magazine (Australia/New Zealand and UK/International Editions)
Art+Object Auction House
Artists Alliance ArtAll Magazine
Artists, designers and curators (numerous)
Artlink Australia Magazine
Artspace Auckland, NZ Venice Project Speculation, 2007
ArtsPost Galleries and Shop, Hamilton, NZ
Auckland Art Fair Trust
Auckland Arts Regional Trust and The Big Idea Trust (the ART Venture Programme)
Auckland City Council, Arts Policy, Arts Services and Strategic Development
Auckland City Council, Manager public art (2010)
Auckland Council, Manager public art (2010-2011)
Auckland Council, Public Art Policy project (2011-2012)
Auckland Festival Trust
AUT University, Master of Arts Management programme
AUT University, Curatorial Strategy programme
Bay of Plenty Polytechnic School of Education & Humanities
British Council – New Zealand
Ceramics: Art and Perception Magazine
Chartwell Trust
City Gallery, Wellington
Contemporary Visual Art & Culture Broadsheet (Adelaide, Australia)
Cooper & Company / Britomart Arts Foundation (Britomart, Auckland)
Corban Estate Arts Centre, Waitakere, Auckland
Creative New Zealand and Fuel4Arts
Creative Tauranga
CulturesFrance
Dunedin Fringe Arts Trust
Enjoy Public Art Gallery Wellington
Gibbs Farm, Kaipara / The Keystone Trust
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
Hamilton City Council, Public Art Policy 2010-2020
Hamilton City Council, Curatorial services
Hamilton City Council and Downer, Garden Place public art work
Heritage New Zealand Magazine
Jessie Casson “Champions: New Zealand Winners” touring exhibition
LITMUS Research Initiative (Massey University School of Fine Arts)
Manukau School of Visual Arts (Manukau Institute of Technology)
Metro Magazine
New Zealand Post Group
New Zealand Sculpture OnShore, Guest Curator, 2008, 2010, 2012
Onggi International Ceramics Expo, Ulsan, Korea, 2010
Smales Farm Technology Park, North Shore, Auckland
St Paul Street Gallery (AUT University, Auckland)
Standing Ovation
The Big Idea website
The Blue Room touring exhibition curated by Pippa Sanderson
Trust Waikato
Veja Luxe Magazine, São Paulo
Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) Department of Media Arts
Waikato Museum
Waikato Sculpture Trust, Waitakaruru Arboretum and Sculpture Park
Wanganui District Council
Wellington City Council Public Art Panel (2008-2010)
Whitecliffe College of Art and Design
What others say
I was so impressed; blown away! Your work makes our job much less complex. (Arts organisation)
The report is great – just what we needed and the timing is PERFECT. (Public gallery director)
The feedback I'm getting from the board is that they can't believe how well things are organised and how much ahead of the play we are this year. (General manager, arts organisation) |
Your encouragement and enthusiasm are both refreshing in the art world and just the kind of positive energy I need to keep myself motivated. (Artist)
Many, many thanks for your great presentation to artists. Your talk was excellent. I would like to have more opportunities for you to present in the future. (Seminar host) |
Your knowledge and expertise not only ensured that my objectives for the project were exceeded, but that the entire process was made highly enjoyable. (Artist)
Your contribution was brilliant - it just brought the threads of the day together. The international connection was really helpful - it was a bit like linking to a satellite to see where you stand. You're our very own arts global positioning system. (Seminar host) |
Our Director
Rob Garrett
Rob Garrett has more than 30 years’ experience in the visual arts (as artist, educator, writer, curator, arts manager and government advisor) and has long experience especially in commissioning artist projects, and in curating and project managing public art projects and installations by a wide range of visual artists.
Rob Garrett Contemporary Fine Art (RGCFA) is an art management and consultancy company committed to arts development, innovation and excellence in the visual arts. As the company's Principal, Rob Garrett leads the provision of advisory services and practical hands-on support to artists, arts businesses and not-for-profits, government and public sector organisations, arts lovers and others in the arts sector.
Rob Garrett's specialist skills and experience include:
- Strategic planning in the cultural sector;
- Arts management at the highest levels;
- Contemporary art curating and writing, especially in the field of public art;
- Relationship brokering across government, corporate and community organisations;
- International art networks and project brokering;
- Business development for artists and creative entrepreneurs;
- Art project production; and
- Understanding how artists think, create and work; and nurturing their visions from conception to realisation.
Garrett has been a New Zealand leader in public art policy development, programme management and curating. Through 2010 and 2011 he was contracted to lead Auckland’s public art team, first by Auckland City Council and then by the new Auckland Council during the largest ever restructuring of local government which amalgamated 8 local government authorities into one Council for the whole of Auckland. Prior to this Garrett led Auckland City Council’s public art review, which established a new policy, funding structure and an expert in-house public art team. In 2011 he was invited back to lead Auckland Council’s Public Art Policy project to develop a suitable policy for the region-wide Council.
Garrett continues to provide public art curatorial and planning advice to a range of other local government and private commissioners. In 2010 Rob Garrett developed Hamilton City Council’s inaugural 10-year public art plan; and served a two-year term on Wellington City Council’s Public Art Advisory Panel. In 2010 he curated a public art competition for the Smales Farm Station at the Smales Farm Technology Park in Auckland. He curated “Auto Garage” 2009 by German installation artist Ines Tartler for the development company Cooper & Company – the project was the first international public art commission for the Britomart development in Auckland’s central city.
In 2008 and 2010 Rob Garrett was guest curator of the biennial outdoor sculpture exhibition NZ Sculpture OnShore which raises funds for NZ Women’s Refuges and which included works by more than 100 artists; and he returns as guest curator for the November 2012 exhibition. He was curator of special projects for the Auckland Art Fair in 2009 for which he commissioned Joanna Langford’s most ambitious installation project “The Whisper Lands”. Garrett was selector and judge for the 2009 Fieldays No8 Wire National Art Award; curator of Sculpture in the Park 2009 at the Waitakaruru Arboretum, Waikato; guest judge for the Wanganui District Council’s inaugural public sculpture competition; and guest curator for the Hairy Maclary sculpture trail being developed in Tauranga, the home of internationally renowned children’s author Dame Lynley Dodd. He was Project Manager for the Speculation project which was devised as New Zealand’s unofficial presentation at the 2007 Venice Biennale; and presented 30 artists selected by 8 curators in a publication distributed at the Biennale in the absence of an official New Zealand pavilion in that year.
Rob Garrett’s notable former roles include:
- Head of School, Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic (1999-2002);
- Senior Manager, Creative New Zealand, Arts Council of New Zealand Aotearoa (2002-2006);
- Project Leader, New Zealand Pavilion, 51st Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art 2005;
- Government appointed Council Member, Arts Council of New Zealand Aotearoa (2000-2002); and
- Founding Chair, Otago Festival of the Arts, Dunedin (1998-2002).
During Garrett’s Dunedin years he founded the Dunedin School of Art contemporary art theory programme and its international Artist Residency programme Artists at Work. Between 1993 and 2002 under Garrett’s artistic direction the residency programme included new work commissions and exhibitions and / or temporary site-specific public installations by Coco Fusco and Nao Bustamante (USA), Su Xinping (China), Su Grierson (Scotland), Ed Osborn (USA), Anne Ferran (Australia), Richard Crow (UK), Margaret Roberts (Australia), Gisela Genthner (Germany), Georganne Deen (USA), Ruth Hadlow (Australia), Adrian Hall (Australia) and Roger Palmer (Scotland). He also co-founded, with Ngai Tahu, the art school’s residency programme aimed at developing Ngai Tahu’s young visual artists.
Garrett trained as an artist and has a fine arts degree from Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University, and a post-graduate degree in Art History from Otago University. His passion for the arts includes frequent travel to keep up-to-date with major vents in the international contemporary art calendar and to maintain the company’s networks; regular articles and reviews on contemporary art; and collecting the works of emerging artists. |
