James Mack (Galvan Kepler Macnamara; 1941 – 3 June 2004) was a curator, director, advisor and arts advocate in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and the Pacific.
Career
Mack trained as a teacher, specialising in arts and crafts teaching and spent several years on the
South Auckland
South Auckland is an imprecisely defined urban area of Auckland, New Zealand, with a young population, a relatively large Polynesian and Māori demographic, and lower incomes than other parts of Auckland. The name ''South Auckland'', though not ...
Education Board as an Arts and Crafts Advisor.
Between 1968 and 1971, he worked at the
Dunedin Public Art Gallery
The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located in The Octagon in the heart of the city, it is close to the city's public library, Dunedin Town Hall, and other facilities such as t ...
as an assistant director.
In 1972, he joined the newly amalgamated
Waikato Museum
Waikato Museum ( mi, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato) is a regional museum located in Hamilton, New Zealand. The museum manages ArtsPost, a shop and gallery space for New Zealand art and design. Both are managed by the Hamilton City Council. Outside ...
and Art Gallery. There he curated the 1973 exhibition ''Taranaki Saw it All: The Story of Te Whiti O Rongomai of Parihaka'', ‘stepping into a cross-cultural role that few had undertaken in the gallery environment of the time.’
In 1974, Mack began four years at the East West Centre in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
as a Senior Fellow and visiting Research Associate. He then worked as a project manager for the
Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council
The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets ...
in the late 1970s.
Dowse Art Museum
James Mack was the director of
The Dowse Art Museum
The Dowse Art Museum is a municipal art gallery in Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
Opening in 1971 in the Lower Hutt CBD, The Dowse occupies a stand-alone building adjacent to other municipal facilities. The building was completely remodelled in 2 ...
in Lower Hutt between 1981 and 1988. Art historian Douglas Lloyd Jenkins writes 'Under the directorship of James Mack...The Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt championed New Zealand craft and repositioned the gallery as a repository of decorative rather than fine arts.'
Mack redefined The Dowse's collection policy so that the focus was upon building a nationally and internationally significant collection of craft and applied art, including ceramics, jewellery, glass and textile art. The Dowse also programmed exhibitions that celebrated a range of craft artists and their practices, such as ''Pakohe'' in 1986, which celebrated master craftsmen working in stone.
National Museum
In 1988, Mack moved into a public services role at the National Museum (now the
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
).
Mack curated ''
Treasures of the Underworld
''Treasures of the Underworld'' was an exhibition featured in the New Zealand pavilion of Seville Expo '92.
The exhibition
The exhibition featured 48 works, comprising a total of 399 individual pieces. It was extremely successful with over half a ...
'', a glass and clay exhibition created for the New Zealand pavilion at the 1992 Seville Expo. The exhibition featured 48 works by top New Zealand craft practitioners and was themed to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to America.
Later life
Mack retired to the
Wairarapa
The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service ...
, establishing a small gallery in
Featherston
Featherston is a surname of English origin, at least as old as the 12th century. The link with "Featherstone" is probably not traceable, but people researching both spellings (and others such as "de Fetherestanhalgh") contribute to the collection o ...
. At the age of 60, he changed his name to Galvan Macnamara, his father's name. A
Spiral
In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point.
Helices
Two major definitions of "spiral" in the American Heritage Dictionary are: An obituary by New Zealand craft advocate Edith Ryan described as a 'very gifted, quixotic man' who 'put the whole weight of his passion and drive behind the craft creators of this country'.
The
Hocken Collections
Hocken Collections (, formerly the Hocken Library) is a research library, historical archive, and art gallery based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Its library collection, which is of national significance, is administered by the University of Otago.
T ...
holds archival material covering nearly 40 years of Mack's life.