About us
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.
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:
- Training and career development
- Business strategy development
- Providing skilled studio assistants (on-call)
- Opportunity identification
- 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 Fairs International Magazine
Art New Zealand Magazine
Art News New Zealand Magazine
Art World Magazine (Australia/New Zealand and UK/International)
Art+Object Auction House
Artists Alliance ArtAll Magazine
Artlink Australia Magazine
Artspace Auckland (NZ Venice Project Speculation, 2007)
ArtsPost Galleries and Shop, Hamilton City Council
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 Festival Trust
Bay of Plenty Polytechnic School of Education & Humanities
Ceramics: Art and Perception Magazine
Chartwell Trust
City Gallery, Wellington
Cooper & Company / Britomart Arts Foundation (Britomart, Auckland)
Corban Estate Arts Centre, Waitakere
Creative New Zealand and Fuel4Arts
Dunedin Fringe Arts Trust
Enjoy Public Art Gallery Wellington
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth
Heritage New Zealand Magazine
Jessie Casson “Champions: New Zealand Winners” touring exhibition
LITMUS Research Initiative (Massey University School of Fine Arts)
Metro Magazine
New Zealand Post Group
New Zealand Sculpture OnShore 2008
Numerous individual artists and curators
St Paul Street Gallery AUT University, Auckland
Standing Ovation
“The Blue Room” touring exhibition curated by Pippa Sanderson
Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) Department of Media Arts
Waikato Sculpture Trust, Waitakaruru Arboretum
Wellington City Council Public Art Panel
Wellington Institute of Technology (Weltec) Centre for Creative Industries
Various dealer galleries
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 and arts manager) 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.
Garrett is currently a member of Wellington City Council’s Public Art Panel, and is a founding member of the Venice Foundation Working Party which is working to establish a New Zealand Venice Foundation to ensure the country’s continued presence at this most prestigious of international art events. He recently led Auckland City Council’s public art review. He is curating the 2008 biennial outdoor sculpture exhibition NZ Sculpture OnShore which raises funds for NZ Women’s Refuges and will include works by more than 100 artists; and is curator of special projects for the Auckland Art Fair in 2009.
Previously he was a senior manager with Creative New Zealand, New Zealand’s Arts Council, where led the artist / curator selection process and was the project team leader for New Zealand’s presentation at the 2005 Venice Biennale (et al’s the fundamental practice). In 2007 he project managed Speculation, New Zealand’s unofficial presentation of 30 artists, selected by 8 curators at the 2007 Venice Biennale.
From 1999 to 2002 Garrett was Head of the Dunedin School of Art. He founded the school’s 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 school’s residency programme aimed at developing Ngai Tahu’s young visual artists.
Garrett also initiated and founded Dunedin’s Otago Festival of the Arts, a boutique arts festival for a boutique city. He 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 overseas to keep up-to-date and maintain the company’s networks; regular articles and reviews on contemporary art; and collecting the works of emerging artists.
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