Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts is what the future of creativity feels like.
We provide a thriving, well-resourced and inspiring learning environment that fosters research, scholarship and creative practice.
Our students flourish in the creative industries, win awards, represent New Zealand and hold key positions that define creative thinking in businesses around the world.
Study fine arts, Māori visual art, design, commercial music and creative media production at Toi Rauwhārangi.
Toi Rauwhārangi's research explores the intersection of the creative arts and humanity, and our researchers are world class in their fields.
We excel across many disciplines and have the highest number of top-ranked researchers in design, visual art and craft in New Zealand following the 2018 PBRF round.
Our researchers work with industry, professional groups, government and the cultural sector in New Zealand and internationally, offering a rich context and transformative experience for our postgraduate students.
Professor Claire Robinson’s research interest is the visual communication of political messages in the context of election campaigning and political leadership. Her research has been disseminated through international peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters, international conferences and designs. Robinson is a frequent media commentator on New Zealand politics. She is available to supervise postgraduate students up to PhD level.
Find out more about the departments that make up the College of Creative Arts.
Ngā Pae Māhutonga Wellington School of Design
Te Rewa o Puanga School of Music and Creative Media Production
The College of Creative Arts has partnerships with the following organisations:
In 2019 Massey University was ranked 1st in Asia Pacific by International Red Dot Design Awards, the only design school to be ranked in New Zealand and Australia. This significant achievement recognises the high calibre of our teaching staff and the exceptional quality of our students design concept work.
In 2016 lecturer Shannon Te Ao (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) was awarded the Walters Art Prize, arguably New Zealand's most prestigious art award, for his two artworks; 'Two shoots that stretch far out' (2013-14) and 'Okea ururoatia (never say die)' (2016).
Distinguished Professor Anne Noble was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography in 2003 and became a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate in 2009.
Massey University College of Creative Art's staff and students consistently win more Best Awards than any other tertiary provider. We have had 374 student finalists over the past 15 years in the Designers Institute of NZ BEST Awards.
Professor Bob Jahnke was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2017 for his contribution to Māori art and education.
Musician and lecturer Devin Abrams, who performs under the moniker Pacific Heights, has won Best Electronic Album at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards.
In 2017, Kate Fisher won the student innovation section of the World of Wearable Art (WOW) Awards. Her garment, made of red-coloured vinyl, fusing and buttons, was also named runner up of the RED open section that celebrates the colour of extremes.
Nicole has been employed at Fisher and Paykel Appliances for the past year, and is in the process of commercialising her concept: ‘Moray’, a lamb docking iron which won gold at the Best Awards and was the New Zealand winner of the International James Dyson Award in 2017.
Nicole Austin
Bachelor of Design with Honours (Industrial Design)
“When I started I was really passionate about painting but the course offered other art forms like photography and media studies which meant that over the years my passion changed and I started creating videos.” After graduating Puawai went on to become one of the presenters on iconic youth TV show Pukana and has a growing online audience for her ‘Hey Puawai’ videos. She credits her success to the course that awakened her passion for performance art.
Puawai Taiapa-Aporo
Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts
Kate Sylvester studied fashion design at Massey’s precursor institute, the Wellington Polytechnic, in the 1980s. She is now one of New Zealand’s most commercially successful and respected fashion designers. Her collections are sold in both New Zealand and Australia, and are highly anticipated at annual Fashion Weeks in both countries. Kate’s conceptual strength as a designer is well-loved by local and international media, and her pieces are worn by a diverse range of discerning fashionistas.
Kate Sylvester
Fashion Design
Kate's major 3rd year project was the 3D animated short film ‘Tinker’, in which she helped lead a team through the entire pipeline of animation development.
She currently works at Pūkeko Pictures as a Junior Assistant Editor on the Thunderbirds show.
Kate Lambert
Bachelor of Creative Media Production
In 2017 Yoshi was selected to take part in the Graduate Show at New Zealand Fashion Week, where she showed her final collection ‘kiru’. This collection brought notions of the kimono into a contemporary context, and was seen by hundreds of international media and industry representatives. Yoshi is now employed in the design team at New Zealand sustainable fashion label KowTow.hundreds of international media and industry representatives.
Yoshi is now employed in the design team at New Zealand sustainable fashion label Kowtow.
Yoshino Muruyama
Bachelor of Design with Honours (Fashion Design)
Chev found his strength in bringing together his art and his whakapapa. With a passion for cultural identity and social ethnography, his emerging creative career has involved advertising, journalism, mural and documentary projects.
In 2017 he won the Ngā Manu Pīrere award for emerging Māori artists at Te Waka Toi Awards.
Chevron Te Whetumatarau Hassett
Bachelor of Design (Hons) (Photography)
Having previously spent some years in the UK teaching and playing music Chris returned to New Zealand to follow his creative passion for film and character-based storytelling.
Chris’s major project is a series of original videos ‘Lance What Have You Done?’, which he wrote, developed, directed, and acted in. This series subsequently won him the prestigious Screen Production and Development Association (SPADA) South Pacific Pictures Big Pitch Award in 2017.
Chris Chalmers
Bachelor of Creative Media Production
Sir Richard Taylor is famed for his work alongside Peter Jackson in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. A multiple Oscar winner, Richard studied at the Wellington School of Design from 1982 to 1984, where he tended to ‘alter the brief to suit his skills’.
Sir Richard Taylor
Honorary Professor, College of Creative Arts
Students can access a number of workshops on campus, alongside technical staff who will introduce them to the equipment and assist them if required. The 3D Workshop has specialty spaces to explore materials, prototyping and manufacturing processes. This includes wood, plastics, engineering, resins/ casting, welding, sanding and spray booths, CNC (water jet cutter, laser cutters, mill, routers) through to wood and metal working machinery and hand tools.
Students can access a number of workshops on campus, alongside technical staff who will introduce them to the equipment and assist them if required. Equipment in the fine arts workshop includes a range of wood and metal working machinery, hand tools, a spray booth and casting area.
Students have access to the synthetic colouration and natural dye laboratory, which includes a dye vat and colour testing winch. There is also a digital sublimation printer for polyester fabrics and materials, and screen printing facility with 7m print tables.
Students can access five acoustically treated rehearsal rooms with backline and vocal PA systems suitable for modern music. The production rehearsal room, which also doubles as a live venue, is equipped with PA and full professional lighting rig.
Designed by Munro Acoustics (London) and Athfield Architects (WGTN), Massey University has recently constructed world-class recording facilities at the Wellington Campus. The flagship studio features 300m2 of live-rooms controlled by two of the world’s most sought-after desks; a 72ch Neve, and a 48ch SSL Duality analogue console. Both control rooms have an impressive selection of outboard and monitoring is with Dynaudio Acoustics soffit mounted speakers in 5.1.
Students can access a dedicated Technology Lab, that has specialist equipment for hardware development, software development, electronics, prototyping and 3D printing.
The print and type studio includes: A laser cutter; vinyl cutter; metal and wooden type; cylinder and platen presses; and screen printing equipment.
Our spacious textile weave and knit design and construction studio includes domestic single bed knitting machines, 8 shaft table looms, 16 and 32 shaft AVL floor looms, and a needle felting machine for felt and non-woven production.
Students have access to extensive workrooms that include plain sewers, overlockers, industrial presses, buttonholers, bar tackers, knit and leather machinery. The expansive studios have large tables for pattern-making and cutting, and computer labs for digital pattern-making using CAD software, pattern digitising and plotting. There is space for students to set up their own working stations as they prepare final collections or presentations.
Our combined gear library has top-of-the-line equipment for students and researchers, including 5K cameras, lighting and audio kits, 360 cameras and VR/AR/MR kits.
Massey University’s Wellington campus houses cutting edge digital production and post-production tools. Students can use high-end digital cameras with the 300m2 green screen and lighting gear to create the perfect shot in post-production. Our range of camera equipment will help get your shot moving, or keep it perfectly still, or post-production artists can record motion-capture takes using our 24 camera Vicon motion capture array.
