Helen Joan Kedgley (born in 1948 in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

) is a retired New Zealand art curator and gallery director, who remains active in arts governance. She is the twin sister of New Zealand politician

Sue Kedgley Susan Jane Kedgley (born 1948) is a New Zealand politician, food campaigner and author. Before entering politics Kedgley worked for the United Nations in New York for 8 years and for a decade as a television reporter, director and producer in N ...

and wife of retired diplomat and broadcaster

Chris Laidlaw Christopher Robert Laidlaw (born 16 November 1943) is a New Zealand politician and former rugby union player, Rhodes Scholar, public servant, diplomat and radio host. Early life Laidlaw was born in Dunedin and schooled at King's High School f ...

. Along with her sister Sue, Kedgley grew up in Wellington and attended

Samuel Marsden Collegiate School Samuel Marsden Collegiate School is a private composite girls school located in the Wellington suburb of Karori in New Zealand. It has a socio-economic decile of 10 - on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 reflecting the lowest socioeconomic communities - ...

and

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

where she earned a Bachelor of Arts majoring in politics. After a year studying at the

Elam School of Fine Arts The Elam School of Fine Arts, founded by John Edward Elam, is part of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. Students study degrees in fine art with an emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach. The schoo ...

at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

Kedgley moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

with her husband, diplomat Chris Laidlaw, and studied fine art and art history, graduated from the

École du Louvre The École du Louvre is an institution of higher education and grande école located in the Aile de Flore of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology and epigraphy. Admission is ...

with a diploma in art history and from the

Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Sciences ...

with an advanced diploma in fine arts. Kedgley and Laidlaw travelled extensively for his diplomatic career for two decades, with Kedgley taking several arts-related roles as they moved about, including as a designer at the Science Museum in Oxford and at the African National Gallery in Zimbabwe. On her return to Wellington, Kedgley became involved in Page 90 Artspace Gallery, a women's art initiative in

Porirua Porirua, ( mi, Pari-ā-Rua) a city in the Wellington Region of the North Island of New Zealand, is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. The name 'Porirua' is a corruption of 'Pari-rua', meaning "the tide swee ...

. When Page 90 was absorbed into

Pataka Art + Museum Pātaka Art + Museum is a municipal museum and art gallery of Porirua City, New Zealand. Te Marae o Te Umu Kai o Hau is the name of the building where Pātaka Museum + Art is located and opened in 1998. It also houses the Porirua City Library, Caf ...

on its opening in 1998, Kedgley became a curator at the new gallery, and took over as director when founding director

Darcy Nicholas Darcy John Nicholas (born 1945) is a New Zealand artist, writer and art administrator. Art administration career Nicholas opened his own art gallery in Lower Hutt in 1975. In 1981 he became director of the Wellington Arts Centre. In 1986 Nicho ...

stepped down in 2012. Kedgley curated more than 50 exhibitions at Pātaka, including ''The Eternal Thread - The Changing Art of Maori Weaving'', a partnership with

Toi Māori Aotearoa Toi Māori Aotearoa (English: Māori Arts New Zealand) is a charitable trust that promotes Māori traditional arts and Māori artists, both in New Zealand and overseas. Much of Toi Māori's funding comes indirectly from the government, through C ...

and

Tourism New Zealand Tourism New Zealand is the marketing agency responsible for promoting New Zealand as a tourism destination internationally. It is the trading name of the New Zealand Tourism Board, a Crown entity established under the New Zealand Tourism Board Ac ...

, which was launched in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and toured the west coast of America and the 2008 exhibition ''Samoa Contemporary'', the first large-scale exhibition of contemporary Samoan art. Kedgley has also exhibited her own abstract paintings in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe and India but focused on her career as a curator. Kedgley retired from

Pataka Pātaka Art + Museum is a municipal museum and art gallery of Porirua City, New Zealand. Te Marae o Te Umu Kai o Hau is the name of the building where Pātaka Museum + Art is located and opened in 1998. It also houses the Porirua City Library, Caf ...

in 2015. She remains active in a range of governance roles, including: *Trustee,

New Zealand Portrait Gallery The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata is an art gallery located in Wellington, New Zealand, in the Waterfront Shed 11 building. History The gallery was registered as a charitable trust in 1990. In 2005 the board hired its first ...

*Trustee, Blumhardt Foundation *Trustee, Pātaka Foundation *Trustee, Wellington Sculpture Trust

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kedgley, Helen 1948 births Living people Victoria University of Wellington alumni New Zealand artists New Zealand women artists New Zealand women curators