16 Jun 2014
Creative New Zealand was sad to hear of the death of Dr Michael Volkerling in Sydney at the weekend.
Michael was Director of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council (now Creative New Zealand) from 1977 to 1988, its longest serving Chief Executive. He returned to Creative New Zealand as an Arts Council member from 1997 to 1999.
During the period of Michael’s directorship, the Council was expanded to include the Council for Māori and South Pacific Arts and the acclaimed Te Maori exhibition was toured to the United States.
Michael went on to a distinguished career in arts management, teaching and cultural research in New Zealand and Australia. As Executive Director of the National Art Gallery and Museum he established the Museum of New Zealand (the forerunner of Te Papa). Between 1993 and 2006 he taught and directed programmes at Victoria University and then the Wellington Institute of Technology. He was an internationally respected commentator and researcher on arts and culture and a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Cultural Policy and the Asia Pacific Journal of Arts Management.
At the time of his death he was Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney.
Our love and thoughts are with his family.
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