Whanganui Regional Museum will host a series of pop-ups featuring Whanganui textile artists demonstrating their crafts, including Patsy Trail (left) and Christine Imlay-McLean, pictured with organiser Cherie Johansson. Photo / Karen Hughes
Whanganui Regional Museum will host a series of pop-ups featuring Whanganui textile artists demonstrating their crafts, including Patsy Trail (left) and Christine Imlay-McLean, pictured with organiser Cherie Johansson. Photo / Karen Hughes
A national textile symposium is coming to Whanganui for the first time and is putting local artists and history centre stage.
The three-day Costume & Textiles Aotearoa New Zealand (CTANZ) event from May 8-10 will feature talks by industry experts, tours and opportunities to explore the city.
It is hostedby the Whanganui Regional Museum, which will run free pop-ups by Whanganui artists alongside the symposium.
CTANZ president Claire Regnault said the symposium was open to everyone with an interest in dress and textiles.
“You get a weekend to share that obsession with people that understand and ... you can completely indulge.”
The symposium’s 2026 theme, Journeys (Haerenga), reflected the importance of the Whanganui River and its impact on the region’s textile industry, Regnault said.
“Māori and then later Pākehā were always journeying up and down ... and it was really important to trade and to communities getting together,” she said.
“It seemed a really nice theme for Whanganui.”
The keynote speakers are Whanganui-based artists Lee Williams and Matthew McIntyre Wilson.
Williams is a costume designer and educator known for her work on The Hobbit trilogy, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, and River Queen. She has been a costume technician for World of Wearable Art, Royal New Zealand Ballet, New Zealand Opera School and New Zealand Opera.
She also teaches sewing and costume design at her Whanganui business, Paetuia Studio, at 180 Victoria Ave.
Matthew McIntyre Wilson is one of the keynote speakers.
Wilson is a jeweller and weaver who moved to Whanganui in 2020 for a four-month residency at Tylee Cottage. His residency studied traditional hīnaki weaving from hapū groups along the river and became a two-year project to restore the craft in the community.
Other talk topics range from sustainability in the age of fast fashion to textiles as comfort during conflict and as banners during protests, and case studies on garments from around the world.
There will be a walking tour of the city and a private tour of the museum’s textile collection.
Friday’s event will end at Space Studio & Gallery and Saturday’s at the Whanganui Musicians Club.
The museum’s pop-ups will offer a free alternative for people interested in learning more about textiles and crafts.
Museum public engagement lead Cherie Johansson said she organised the pop-ups to showcase the range of talent in Whanganui.
“We’ve got so many makers and crafters and very talented people here.
“I thought, well, why don’t we just showcase some of those people?”
The pop-ups will feature crocheting, knitting, clothing repair, quilting, wool spinning, felt making, embroidery, upcycling and brooch-making.
“You can just see the amazing pride that they have in their craft,” Johansson said.
The artists will give demonstrations and offer the chance to try some techniques.
People can explore the He Keti Iti (woven baskets) exhibition at the museum, featuring contributions from several Whanganui artists.
Johansson said opportunities such as the CTANZ symposium and pop-ups helped keep crafts alive – “the sort of those old skills that have been forgotten”.
Regnault said textile crafts were not taught as widely as in previous generations but new interest gave hope.
“It’s been great over the last few years to see sort of a revival, particularly around young people of knitting and crafting,” she said.
“Just going back to basics and that real appreciation of making and being able to mend and fix things.”
CTANZ was founded in the early 2000s by a small group from universities and museums studying New Zealand’s dress histories and textiles.
“It was a little gathering of interested parties who wanted to get together more, share information and ... have an outlet for their research,” Regnault said.
The organisation has since grown nationwide with a biannual journal and annual symposium.
Online registration for the full symposium is closed but people interested in attending one day of the event can contact CTANZ through its website.
No registration is required for the museum pop-up sessions. The schedule is on the museum website.
Erin Smith is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.
