A Tongan multi-disciplinary artist in the US has won a New Zealand Pacific artists’ award.
Vaimoana Niumeitolu has been awarded the Tautai International Artist Residency for 2019.
Vaimoana is a celebrated writer, actor, painter, community muralist, educator and filmmaker.
Born in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, raised in Hawai’i and Utah, Vaimoana now lives and works in New York City. She graduated from New York University in painting and performance, earned the Ellen Stoekel Fellowship in painting and drawing from Yale University and attended Columbia University’s Graduate Program in Acting.
Vaimoana has completed 24 community murals in Australia, Kenya, Jordan, New Zealand, Palestine, South Africa and in the United States: California, New York (Brooklyn and the Bronx) and Utah.
The Tautai International Artist Residency is offered bi-annually to Pacific artists beyond New Zealand. Provided with return airfares, accommodation and a stipend the ‘gift of time’ gives the resident artist opportunities to meet and interact with the local Pacific arts community, and to dedicate time to research and the creation of new work.
Tautai Director Courtney Sina Meredith says she is thrilled to have Vaimoana in Aotearoa during an exciting time of growth and expansion at Tautai.
Vaimoana Niumeitolu will be a featured speaker at the next Tautai First Fridays event, September 6th at Audio Foundation.
Vaimoana will be available for media interviews during her stay, from September 2 to September 29 2019.
