Term 4 2026, Course A
November 5: “Reflections on my Art Practice: Drawing, Thinking and the Wider Pictorial Space”
Speaker: Mark Soltero, visual artist, speaking on his personal art practice, early history and critical developments.
Mark holds an MFA from Dunedin School of Art, a Batchelor of Design from Ara Institute and a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching. He was awarded the inaugural Head of School Award for Excellence in Post-Graduate Drawing from the Dunedin School of Art in 2014. He has been a finalist in the National Contemporary Art Awards three times, twice a finalist in the Adam Portraiture Award, and a finalist in the NZ Painting & Printmaking Award, the 5th International Open Print Show and the American Drawing Biennial IV.
November 12: “Life’s Most Amazing People”
Speaker: Rob Harley is a very experienced journalist with a long and successful history in TV News, Current Affairs and documentary making. He is also the author of 12 books.
This will be a highly visual presentation based on Rob’s extensive experience in investigative journalism, reporting from war zones, helping to solve crimes on the international stage, and other quite intriguing adventures!
November 19: “Crime Scene Cleanup”
Speaker: Carl Loader, General Manager and co-founder, Crime Scene Cleaners, a specialist forensic and trauma cleaning company operating across New Zealand. With extensive experience in complex cleaning and remediation, Carl has helped develop a professional service dedicated to restoring properties affected by trauma, biohazards, extreme filth, and other challenging conditions.
Carl will outline how he started up Crime Scene Cleaners, hazards involved at a crime scene, clean-up of homes used as meth labs, working in collaboration with Police when dealing with the homeless who have set up tent cities and the restoration of these sites. He and Melissa (Administration Manager) will bring along "props" used in their work.
November 26: “Big Brothers, Big Sisters”
Speaker: Craig Ogilvie has been a volunteer ‘Big Brother' to 12-year-old Bailey for the last 4 years. He is also a trustee and Co-chair of the Big Brothers, Big Sisters Board. Craig has been involved with mentoring children since 2010 and loved the organisation so much that he worked for them for a few years too.
The Big Brothers, Big Sisters organisation helps young people reach their full potential through one-to-one mentoring relationships with positive and caring adult mentors. Craig will talk about his mentoring journey and the organisation’s work.
December 3: “The Arts Centre: History and Future”.
Speaker: Susan Henson, BSc MBA CFRE, Fundraising Manager, Christchurch Arts Centre.
Susan’s presentation will be wide-ranging, covering…
the history and architectural design of what is now the Arts Centre complex,
the extent of earthquake damage and the restoration process – it’s complexity and engineering approaches - and
alternate usage and restoration goals for remaining un-restored buildings, including funding challenges.