Tylee Cottage
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Tylee Cottage

Tylee Cottage Artist-in-Residencies 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 19 March 2026

Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui is pleased to announce the 2026 recipients of the Tylee Cottage artist residency programme, which is generously supported by Creative New Zealand’s Toi Uru Kahikatea (Arts Development) Investment Programme.

Two distinct four-month residencies were on offer and the successful applicants for the programme this year are Claudia Jowitt and Harry Culy, who will join the gallery as the next Tylee Cottage residents between April and November 2026.

The gallery’s senior curator and programmes manager, Greg Donson said: “This year we had a large number of applications for residencies, and it was a very difficult selection process. The calibre of applicants across the two residencies was extremely high and we were heartened to receive so many excellent applicants from artists all over Aotearoa.”

Residency 1: Claudia Jowitt – Painter Over the Age of 35

Painter Claudia Jowitt will be in residence at Tylee Cottage from April 2026 and is also the recipient of Lilian Ida Smith Award. Jowitt is known for her innovative painting techniques, pushing the boundaries of what paint can do when it meets a diverse array of other media. Her works combine materials such as shell, coral, masi and seaweed that are inlaid into surfaces thick with paint and resin. Drawing on her European and Fijian heritage her unique works speak to a physical sense of place in the South Pacific. Jowitt is represented by Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland and in 2025 had her first solo public art gallery exhibition Uana: Carried by the Waves at the Dowse Art Museum.

Claudia Jowitt, image by Jonathan Edgell Civavonovono II, 2025

The Sarjeant Gallery is pleased to be hosting a Tylee Cottage artist talk with Claudia Jowitt on Wednesday 20 May 2026 at 7.30pm.

Residency 2: Harry Culy – Photography / New Media

Harry Culy joins an impressive alumni of photographers who have called Tylee Cottage home. Culy’s enigmatic photographs explore contemporary life in Aotearoa, depicting vacant interiors, urban and rural landscapes as well as thoughtful portraits that astutely capture the essence of his subjects. Working in the terrain of the everyday with roots embedded in a lineage of documentary photography, Culy is hoping the residency will allow him to continue this approach with an aim to situate his work into “more lyrical ends, blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction”. Culy is represented by Jhana Millers Gallery, Wellington and in 2025 was included in the group exhibition The Brood at the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt.

Harry Culy, image by Molly Tompkins Harry Culy, Untitled (Bruce Avenue), 2024

Donson adds “The Sarjeant Gallery is excited to see the unique perspectives and ideas Claudia and Harry will bring to Whanganui during their time as residents. The Tylee Cottage Residency is a vital and lively part of our exhibition programme, allowing us to show contemporary work by some of Aotearoa’s best practitioners. It’s an important part of the Sarjeant Gallery’s mission to support artists and we are always happy to welcome them into the Whanganui arts community”.

The Tylee Cottage Artist-in-Residence Programme

The artist-in-residence programme at Tylee Cottage, a renovated historic building built in 1853, was established in 1986 as a partnership between the Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery the Whanganui District Council and the QE11 Arts Council of New Zealand. The programme is now solely funded by Creative New Zealand’s Toi Uru Kahikatea (Arts Development) Investment Programme and managed by the Sarjeant Gallery.

The programme is one of the longest running of its kind in New Zealand and in 2016 we celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. Over 50 artists have been in residence including some of the country’s leading practitioners. The residency provides a unique opportunity for an artist to develop a new body of work under less pressured circumstances.

As a result, the residency has the dual benefit of bringing exciting new artists into the city and allows us to include innovative contemporary new work in our exhibition programme that is a unique reflection of each of the artist’s time spent in residence. The residency programme attracts a high calibre of applicants.

Visit here for a list of past residents.