Claudia Jarman Memorial Lecture 2026
We are excited to announce the free annual Claudia Jarman Memorial Lecture for 2026, on Tue 29 Sep, 5.30–7.30pm. With the generous support from the Claudia Jarman fund, Claire Regnault presents Fashioning the Modern Woman.
This lecture is FREE but registrations are required.
Claire Regnault is an award-winning author who specialises in the history of dress in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is particularly interested in what the history of dress can tell us about women’s lives, both real and ideal.
She also happens to be the Exhibition and Programmes Manager at Tauranga Museum and an Honorary Research Associate at Te Papa, where she worked as a senior curator in the History for fifteen years.
Claire is currently working on a new research project with Lizzie Bisley, Stephanie Gibson and Chanel Clarke on Fashioning the Modern Woman: 1920 to 1949, which explores the lives of women during this dynamic period through a combination of art, design and dress.
In this illustrated talk she will give an overview of the project and then using the 1940 New Zealand Centennial Exhibition — which attracted a phenomenal audience of 2,641,043 people - as a springboard explore a range of modern women’s lives, including that of Mollie Rodie, a journalist, fashion illustrator and costume designer, fashion promoter Ina Allan, dare devil motorcyclists Pat ‘Crash’ Gamble and Moy Wong, and Miriama Heketa, a much admired dancer who was famously sculptured by Margaret Butler.
Claudia Jarman (1908–1986) was a passionate art educator who inspired two generations of young people in Tauranga Moana to practise, appreciate and, as one former student recalled, “to see” art and design. Teaching at Tauranga District High School and later Tauranga Girls’ College, Claudia was also an active contributor to the city’s cultural life and a founding member of both the Tauranga Chamber Music Society and Tauranga Art Society.
The Claudia Jarman Memorial Lecture was established by former student Patricia Brooks to honour Claudia’s significant contribution to her students and the arts in Tauranga. Through an annual lecture by a visiting artist or art historian, it continues her legacy of inspiring curiosity, creativity and appreciation for the visual arts.
Image: Mollie Rodie, 1937, Wellington, by Spencer Digby Studios. Spencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf Collection. Gift of Ronald Woolf, 1975. Te Papa.