Melina is an arts practitioner, living and working in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She worked as Thistle Hall Lightbox curator from June to December of 2019. She is currently studying a BA in Society and Culture at Macquarie University and working as a facilitator at the artist-run initiative, MEANWHILE.

Thistle Hall Community gallery will transform into a print studio during the week of 7 - 13 November. Drop by during the week to try out various traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques. Across the week there will be discussions, demonstrations, workshops and the opportunity to visit local printmakers in their studios.

Get in touch if you're interested in running a workshop or a demonstration, talking about some aspect of print or opening your studio to the public : office@thistlehall.nz, 04-384-3088

A timetable of events and opening hours coming soon.

Facebook event

You’re looking at it!

Understanding that our website is one of our most value communication and information management assets, at the end of 2015, Thistle Hall decided it was time to invest in a new forward-thinking website that would fill our current requirements and allow us to develop in the future, providing more user-friendly, consistent access across the increasing number of available platforms.

We enlisted the help of web design duo Webhorse – and these are the results. We’re thrilled!

20 APRIL - 3 MAY 2015

Thistle Hall has a long history as a progressive community venue. We recognise our unique place in Wellington’s history. With this in mind and the impending WW100 commemorations, we developed the idea of Remember the Peacemakers. In 2014 we made a call out for artists, historians, activists and performers. We had enough interest to extend the event over two weeks.

Disrupting the Narrative, by The Art Not War Collective, was a week-long event incorporating an exhibition of contemporary art, historical material and public talks that explore resistance to New Zealand's involvement in the First World War.

In the second week Making Peace, facilitated by Claire Harris, worked with artists, musicians, speakers and performers to engage with members of public to create a dialogue around the idea of making peace. This included a song writing workshop, a dance performance, an exhibition and forums for discussion.

There was huge interest from the public and Thistle Hall provided a space for people to reflect, discuss, explore and engage in critical enquiry.

Thistle Hall has an interest in recording the history of its environment and communities. Our long-term intention is to establish an archive of the changing face of our local environment.

This year the focus was on the faces (street portraits/snapshots capturing the people who walk and work in/on Upper Cuba St area) as well as the places, and an open invite was extended to the children of Wellington to submit up to three digital images each.

The ongoing SNAPSHOT project will:

• Supports and inspires local artists.
• Celebrates the uniqueness and variety of upper Cuba Street and its community.
• Generates interesting documentation of our environment for future generations.
• Raises Thistle Hall's profile in the community and extends/broadens our audiences.

As well as being part of an exhibition of the project at the Thistle Hall gallery – including images from all the entrants, the following selection of images was used to create a drop of eight free postcards – available from Thistle Hall’s office.

*Upper Cuba Street is defined as Cuba Street between Vivian Street and Webb Street for the purpose of this project.

Thistle Hall has an interest in recording the history of its environment and communities. Our long-term intention is to establish an archive of the changing face of our local environment.

The SNAPSHOT 2011 project aimed to document the changing face of upper Cuba Street and foster Thistle Hall’s local creative community. In line with Thistle Hall’s strategic objectives, the SNAPSHOT 2011 project sought to:

• celebrate the uniqueness and variety of upper Cuba Street* and its community through a small group of artists’ eyes.
• generate interesting documentation of our environment for future generations.
• support and inspire local artists.
• raise Thistle Hall’s profile in the community and extend/broaden our audiences.

Four established and emerging local photographers were commissioned to submit 10 new images of the upper Cuba Street area, which celebrate this environment. These artists were Ans Westra, Andrew Ross, Caleb Smith and Ryan McCauley.

As well as being part of an exhibition of the project at the Thistle Hall gallery, the following selection of their images was used to create a drop of eight free postcards – available from Thistle Hall’s office.

*Upper Cuba Street is defined as Cuba Street between Vivian Street and Webb Street for the purpose of this project.