For the last 17 years, Auckland Council’s Artist in Residence programme has offered a unique invitation to selected artists: to live within and be creatively inspired by the beautiful natural spaces that are our regional parks. The 22nd resident has now been selected and this year it’s writer Michelle Elvy.
Taking up residence at the idyllic Barr’s Cottage at Huia, perched right on the edge of the Manukau Harbour, Elvy – only the fourth writer to have been selected for the residency – is setting out to capture unique perspectives on the Waitākere Ranges. She arrives as an observer, ready to immerse herself in all that the park has to offer, and to explore the fascinating line between what is natural and what is intentionally preserved or adapted.
Elvy brings exceptional experience to the residency – she is an award-winning writer, a writing tutor and mentor, an editor and an accomplished ocean sailor.
The setting for Elvy’s residency is a perfect match given her background and her long-standing interest in liminal spaces – transitional or in-between places or states, physically and psychologically.
“Given my nautical background, I’m excited to explore the edge of the land, the place where water and land connect,” says Elvy.
A central theme of her project is the multifaceted idea of a ‘park’ and her creative focus will mirror her environment.
“My work is situated in that space between the wild and the curated – just as a park is,” she adds.
“My goal is to write from this coastal place and contemplate the idea of a park in its various forms: a place to reflect, to rest, to explore: a place that is managed with a specific purpose in mind; a place that holds nature at its centre; a place for community. Park is also a verb, of course: to ease something into a spot or to leave something in a specific place.”
During her residency, Michelle will create a set of poems and photographs that explore these concepts of park, and the processes of coastal change. Her multimedia poetry installation will be on display at Arataki Visitor Centre from 23 February to 30 March 2026.
The Artist in Residence programme has consistently gifted Aucklanders unique artistic reflections on their regional parks. Anticipation is now building for the texts that will evolve from Huia’s coastal haven, knowing that the writer who is temporarily ‘parked up’ by the sea will leave behind her a unique take on the Waitākere Ranges.
Meet Michelle Elvy to hear her views from ‘the wild edge’ of the park and the creative processes that bring visual and poetic work together during the Open Studios Waitākere event on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 November 2025.
About the residency
The Regional Parks Artist in Residence programme enables selected artists to immerse themselves in an Auckland regional park for eight weeks, while creating art to highlight overlooked and remarkable aspects of the natural world around them. Writers, filmmakers, composers and choreographers as well as visual artists working in a variety of media have been hosted as part of this residency. Site specific artworks influenced and inspired by the park environs are shared with the public after each residency usually via an event, performance, publication, exhibition, artist talk or on-site signage.
Applications for the 2026 residency at the Scandrett Regional Park, Moonlight Cottage, open mid-December and close 15 February 2026.
