The Colin McCahon Legacy Project Team
Miri Young-Moir
Project Lead
With twenty years of diverse experience in the arts and cultural sector, Miri brings a combination of research, management, learning and public engagement, and digital interpretation to the Colin McCahon Legacy Project. She holds a Master's Degree in Interdisciplinary and Museum Studies, gained as a Fulbright Scholar from New York University in 2013.
In her former position as Head of Learning and Public Programmes at Te Papa, Miri directed Raranga Matihiko—Weaving Digital Futures (established in 2018 for the Ministry of Education), and she was the project sponsor for the Earthquake Commission funded Minecraft Shaker Mod, 2017.
Miri also brings research management and catalogue raisonné experience, having managed major research projects such as the archival and image research for Between the Flags: 100 Years of Surf Life Saving in New Zealand (2010). She contributed original research to Wendell Castle: A Catalogue Raisonné 1958-2012, (2016). Miri worked for the Donald Judd Foundation (New York and Texas, USA) which gave her valuable insight into working with artist trusts and working with artist’s families.
Brigid van der Tol
Project Management
As a programme and project management professional, Brigid has worked in the sector for approximately 15 years in both employed, contract and management roles. She has worked between operational project delivery and strategic advisory and oversight roles in various sectors and organisations, including emergency management, government, education, ITOs, museums, charities and crown entities.
Brigid has experience in setting up and running project management offices and associated frameworks, implementing change management methodologies as well as generally supporting project delivery and implementing projects.
Elle Loui August
Researcher
Elle is a writer, curator and researcher in Art History and Museum Studies based in Ōtepoti Dunedin. Her exhibition-making and publishing centres the practices of artists, writers and critical thinkers from Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu, situating these within global discourses.
August’s recent research and exhibitions have focused on under-recognised artists and art histories in Aotearoa, examining the emergence of environmental and bicultural narratives during the period 1978-1999, and exploring expanded frameworks that link artworks and ideas to history and place.
Recent exhibitions include, Margery Blackman: Weaving, Life with Jane Groufsky (Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2024; The Dowse Art Museum, 2025), Te Tihi o Kahukura in Several Degrees of Attention (Govett Brewster Art Gallery, 2022); Eléna Gee: World/Body Myth (Objectspace, 2019-20), and Mirror Grain (Objectspace, 2018). Recently published texts include “Story–Body_Stage: Ayesha Greens disruptive museology” in Folk Nationalism and other Stories, City Gallery Wellington, (2023); “Te Marama/The Moon: After Lina Bo Bardi” in A Paper Record: Designers Speak Up, ed. Catherine Griffiths, Gloria Books Auckland, (2023); “W.A Sutton: A Lover’s Discourse” in Several Degrees of Attention: Thinking with the collection, Govett Brewster Art Gallery (2022); “As if these were so many twists in the path,” in There is no other home but this, Areez Katki and Khadim Ali, ed. Zara Stanhope, Govett Brewster Art Gallery (2022).
Alongside undertaking research for the Colin McCahon Trust, August is currently a postgraduate supervisor on the Master of Fine Arts programme at Whitecliffe School of Fine Arts and completing manuscripts on Margery Blackman and Eléna Gee for publication with Rim Books in 2026.
Dr Victoria Munn
Researcher
Victoria is an art historian, art writer and researcher based in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland. In January 2025, Victoria completed her PhD in art history at the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau, and her doctoral thesis positions beauty at the intersection of art, medicine, science and artisanship in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, France and England. While studying at the University of Auckland, Victoria worked as a research assistant to Assistant Professor Erin Griffey and delivered numerous guest lectures in undergraduate and postgraduate art history.
Victoria has worked extensively as a researcher in New Zealand and European art history, alongside work in editing and French and Italian translation. As well as numerous publications resulting from her academic research, she has written about New Zealand contemporary art and art history for Art New Zealand and galleries including Gow Langsford, Föenander Gallery and Webb’s Auction House.
Victoria has also held several curatorial positions in Aotearoa and overseas. In 2023, she was awarded the Brooks International Fellowship at Tate. Working within the Tate Britain Historic British Art Curatorial Department, she undertook research relating to nineteenth-century British women artists, particularly the little known Emma Soyer (née Jones), and exhibitions of ‘women’s art’ at the turn of the twentieth century. More recently, Victoria worked as Assistant Curator of Art at Te Papa, where she spent much time researching works by historic New Zealand women artists in Te Papa’s collection.
Alongside her research work for the Colin McCahon Legacy Project, Victoria is currently completing several writing projects stemming from her doctoral research, supported by a Kate Edger Charitable Trust Post-Doctoral Award and the University of Auckland.
Dr Anna Rigg
Researcher
Anna Rigg is an art historian based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. She brings experience as a writer, researcher, educator, and editor to the Colin McCahon Legacy Project.
Anna completed her PhD in Art History at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University before travelling to New York as the 2022-23 Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her research, focusing on the relationship between gender, art criticism, and the art public in eighteenth-century France, forms the basis of an ongoing book project.