Jenny Harper, Chair
Jenny is the former director of Christchurch Art Gallery, and founding Associate Professor, Art History, Victoria University of Wellington (1995-2005). Jenny Harper was instrumental in the establishment of Art History at Victoria University of Wellington and led the Adam Art Gallery project to its successful opening in 1999. Now retired from her leadership role at the Christchurch Art Gallery, she is offering independent consultancy services to the art museum profession and cultural sector. She is a long-standing patron of the Adam Art Gallery and one of its keenest advocates, who brings her experience, knowledge and fundraising skills to see the Gallery and the Art Collection through the next phases of their history.

Susan Ballard
Susan Ballard is Associate Professor of art history at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington where she teaches courses on art writing and the environment. Recent essays have appeared in October, Environmental Humanities, GeoHumanities, Cultural Geographies, and the Sydney Review of Books. Her books include 100 Atmospheres: Studies in Scale and Wonder (with the MECO network, Open Humanities Press 2019); Alliances in the Anthropocene (with Christine Eriksen, Palgrave 2020) and Art and Nature in the Anthropocene: Planetary Aesthetics (Routledge 2021). Art and Nature in the Anthropocene was awarded the best book in the AAANZ Arts Writing and Publishing Awards 2022. Su curated Listening Stones Jumping Rocks for Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Wellington in 2021, and is currently co-authoring Shift Work: Art and Life in the Third Millennium with Liz Linden to be published by Punctum Press in 2024.

Sandy Callister
Dr Sandy Callister has been an advisory board member and Art Collection trustee since 2010. She is a foundation member of Aotea Ora Community Trust – Aotea/Great Barrier Island’s first social enterprise trust. She established and runs the Aotea Ora Artist Residency programme. Sandy is currently undertaking a Law Masters at Auckland University focusing on human rights issues and our child poverty legislation in Aotearoa. Her work as a community activist with tamariki through the Painga Project in high deprivation communities in South Auckland has been the catalyst. From 2003 to 2017 Sandy was a founder director of PROVIDENCE GROUP, an ‘insights driven’ strategic consultancy business. She previously worked for TVNZ, Saatchi and Saatchi in New York, Unilever in London, and was Managing Director of Colmar Brunton in Wellington. She holds a BA from Victoria University; a PhD in History from the University of Auckland and has studied women and leadership at the Harvard Business School. Her book The Face of War: New Zealand’s Great War Photography was published by Auckland University Press in 2008.

Claire Carruthers
Claire Carruthers (B.A, P.G.C, M.A) has always had a passion for the Arts, her Master’s in Art History specialised in Twentieth Century French Art and in particular Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon. She moved to New Zealand from the UK twenty years ago. Claire's current role at Wellington Free Ambulance is as the General Manager Fundraising and Communications which sits at governance level reporting directly to the CE and Board. She has a track record of success in advising iconic organisations on their strategic priorities and vision by implementing fundraising and communications strategies to support the overall success of an organisation. Previous roles were in higher education and before Wellington Free, she was the Campaign Manager for Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington with the Adam Art Gallery in her portfolio. Her professional life includes being a Director on the Board of Freedom Medical Alarms and a Board of Governor at Queen Margaret College. In 2021 Claire won the Fundraising Institute of New Zealand’s (FINZ) Fundraising Leader of the year award.

Catherine Marks

Robin Skinner
Robin Skinner is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture and Design at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. He teaches Pacific architecture and design and researches New Zealand architectural history.

Carey Young
Carey began her working career in an advertising production role in Wellington New Zealand. She travelled to London in 1998 to continue working in this field whilst supporting herself through an undergraduate Fine Art degree at Goldsmiths College, University of London. On return to New Zealand in 2001 she worked for ten years with Hamish McKay and his stable of artists. She has run her own Gallery, The Young, and worked for leading auction house Webb’s and brings her knowledge of art and artists and the collectors who support them to her role on the board and as a trustee.

Michael Moore-Jones
Michael is the AAG advisory board’s student representative. He is currently completing a PhD in New Zealand Studies that re-examines the foundations of cultural nationalism in New Zealand seeking its international roots and linkages through a close study of key figures in cultural history. He holds a master’s degree in art history from the University of Oxford and an undergraduate degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Yale-NUS College.