Doreen Blumhardt

Dame Doreen Blumhardt was born Vera Doreen Blumhardt in Huanui, just north of Whangarei, to German parents David Blumhardt and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Magdalene Hartdegen. Growing up on their farm, Doreen’s first language was German, only learning English when she started school at Whareora School. The farm was sold during the depression in the 1930s and the family moved to stay with one of her mother’s sisters, where she attended the Whangarei High School and her interest in art began.

On leaving school she wanted to become a teacher, but during the depression the Training College was closed so she attended the Canterbury College of Art. Studying for two years full-time, and then five part-time, she was taught by Evelyn Page, Louise Henderson, Rata Lovell-Smith and Francis Shurrock. While in Christchurch she also became a member of the Christian Science faith.

In 1937 she began teacher’s training at the Christchurch Teacher’s Training College, along with studies in German and education at Canterbury University. During this time she came to believe in the central role that art should play in the education of children. In 1939 she added another year to her studies to focus specifically on arts and crafts education. This belief and training would come to mould her career for the rest of her working life.

In September 1939 the Blumhardt family suffered at the hands of the authorities. Doreen’s father was interned at Pahiatua, then Matiu Somes Island, and the other family members–including Doreen–were interrogated. Her brother Eberhard lost his job, while Doreen was allowed to continue teaching.

In 1941 she became the Head of the Art Department at Christchurch Teachers’ Training College, while also volunteering for the war effort and teaching crafts to returned servicemen.

By 1942 she was teaching at Waterloo School in Lower Hutt, where she experimented with and developed an arts and crafts curriculum. That year she met the Director of Education, Clarence Beeby, who noticed the work she was doing and offered her the position of National Adviser in Art and Craft. Accepting the position, she was tasked with developing her programme into a national teacher training course and implementing an arts and crafts programme for primary schools throughout the country, making art education part of the curriculum.

Taking leave in 1948 she travelled to England and Europe to further her studies and experience, spending three months at the Brighton College of Art. On her return in 1951 she was appointed Head of the Art Department at the Wellington Teachers’ Training College, a position she held for 21 years.

In 1955, Doreen bought a section and built a house at 35 Harbourview Rd, Northland, Wellington. Later she was to purchase 70 Harbourview Road, which became her studio and later her home until her death.

While working, Doreen was determined to carry on with her own artistic practice. She had a long interest in watercolours, screen printing and weaving, but from the early 1950s ceramics became her main creative outlet. In 1952 she purchased a small electric kiln for the college and in 1957 Barry Brickell and Helen Mason helped her build the college’s first stoneware kiln.

Her pots were fired at the college until Roy Cowan designed and built a kiln for her home in the late 1950s. This period saw a surging interest in pottery in New Zealand and regular classes and exhibitions began. Doreen co-founded New Zealand Potter magazine in 1958 and was a prominent member of the New Zealand Society of Potters, founded in 1963. In 1963 she also travelled to Japan and in 1969 was appointed to the advisory panel for the New Zealand pavilion at Expo ‘70 in Osaka.

In 1972 at age 58 she took early retirement where she travelled widely, became integral to arts administration and spent more time on her own practice. During this time she was involved in setting up the Crafts Council of New Zealand, and in 1976 held her first solo exhibition at the Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt.

Doreen also began writing in the 1970s. In 1976 she published her book ‘New Zealand Potters: Their Work and Words’, illustrated by Brian Brake and published by A.H. & A.W. Reed. She also collaborated with Brake to produce ‘Craft New Zealand’ (1982).

The Blumhardt Foundation was established in 2003 to realise the desire of founder Dame Doreen Blumhardt to use her collection and estate to further the collection and the development of New Zealand’s craft/object art during and beyond her lifetime. The Blumhardt Collection is housed, on loan, at The Dowse Art Museum. The Blumhardt Foundation comprises a small number of voluntary Trustees who create and resource strategic partnerships to assist the development of the craft/object art sector.

Doreen’s work as both a potter and art educator was recognised with a variety of honours. In 1981 she was both awarded a Queen’s Honour (CBE), and made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London. In 1991 the Victoria University of Wellington bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate in Literature, and she was made a Dame Companion of the NZ Order of Merit in 2003. Lifetime memberships were also given to her by The New Zealand Society of Potters, the Wellington Potters Association, the Crafts Council of New Zealand, and the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.

Doreen died at Churtonleigh Hospital, Wellington on 17 October 2009, aged 95.

See also:

• Blumhardt, Vera Doreen | Dictionary of New Zealand Biography | Te Ara