About us
The Shutter Room Collective
The Shutter Room Collective and Gallery is a volunteer run community led organisation, we are an incorporated society with a governance committee, we are fortunate to have a wonderful team of volunteer gallery hosts.
We have a professional photo studio available for hire, we run workshops and community events alongside our calendar of exhibitions.
Our mission
To support and promote photographic practice in our region
Formally established June 2013, The Shutter Room Collective (TSRC) aims to foster photographic practices in Northland. Our objective is to enable established and emerging photographers in Te Tai Tokerau to share knowledge and ideas, discuss their practice and explore points of connection between the work of each artist through; exhibitions, the TSRC’s Photographic Studio, social media and collaborative projects.
We are able to keep our doors open thanks to generous support from Whangarei District Council, Creative Northland, the Creative Communities Scheme and Lotteries Community Grants.
GET INVOLVED
Volunteering
Are you passionate about photography or would you like to become more involved in our Creative Community? We would love to welcome more people onto our team. We would love to hear from you if you'd like to become a gallery host, help with installing or packing down exhibitions, or if you would like to offer skills in supporting our committee with organisational tasks, or if you have a cool idea you'd like to discuss with us. Volunteering can be a great way to pick up some skills in art handling, meeting people and supporting our artists and photographers.
Send us an email theshutterroom@gmail.com
Exhibit with us
The Shutter Room Collective invites exhibition proposals once a year from curators, artists and photographers in the field of contemporary and traditional photographic practice. Full details are in the Call for Proposals, and are based on the details below.
The exhibition space
TSRC Gallery is located behind the Old Library in the busy library precinct. We have a window frontage and the exhibition space is 6.5m x 5m. The wall space is white and charcoal, we use standard exhibition hanging and installation methods. Six power sockets are located in the gallery space and can be used for video and media work. TSRC opening hours are Wednesdays to Saturdays or by arrangement. We encourage exhibitors to have an opening night and consider other events and activities, such as workshops and artist talks. Exhibitions usually run for the calendar month, and dates are negotiable.
Application requirements
Describe your idea
Please submit a 500-1000 word proposal that clearly describes your exhibition idea and how your project aligns with our kaupapa; ie, how it engages with photography or the photographic process.
You can submit up to 5 images or video links to work that illustrates your overall practice and what you might include in your exhibition.
Exhibiting Artist(s)
Relevant CV/s, a bio/s, up to 300 words for each artist or photographer involved. Please attach images of work, or a link to work online, to give an indication of the type of work you plan on exhibiting.
Indicate the preferred month/dates to hold this exhibition/project
We can accommodate up to ten exhibitions for the Feb - November per calendar year.
Costs to exhibit:
Thanks to the generous support of a Lotteries Grant we are able to offer scholarships to solo exhibitions, group exhibitions are required to pay a $150 exhibition fee. This is for exhibitions during the 2024 calendar year and we hope this will encourage more people to submit proposals. We require all exhibitors to be current members and to complete an exhibition contract. Annual membership is $25 and this fee goes directly towards covering operational costs such as rent and insurance.
Opening events and any publications such as catalogues are the responsibility of the artist and TSRC team will assist with logistics at events. We encourage artists to seek funding to cover their costs, Creative Northland and the Whangarei Council Creative Communities Scheme may be worth contacting.
TSRC is happy to support by means of letters to confirm planned exhibitions and can offer feedback to you in writing your funding proposal, if we have sufficient time! So let us know as soon as possible if you may require this support.
We encourage you to come visit the gallery and familiarise yourself with the space. If you have an idea, but need support to develop it into an exhibition proposal, send us an email and we can help.