Isabel Gilbert -Palmer Ngati Rangitane Ngati Raukawa
has had her home on the Coromandel Peninsula since 1980’s only returning home from a summer to summer lifestyle between Europe and Kūaotunu , permanently ,in 2016.
She’s a published author specialising in gardens ,food and art journals and books , was entrepreneurial in art and flower stage productions for ten years in USA ,including Bouquet to Arts at the de Young Museum in San Francisco .
Since her return she has focused on bringing Arts to Kūaotunu and the driving force with her small team ,behind 10 Artists , 25 trees for Christmas , Makers and Creatives exhibitions, with participators from Whangārei to Wellington and Hawkes Bay showing , Handmade and Children’s workshops and a successful fundraising event for the Kūaotunu Library inviting writers poets and songwriters share their work .
For the Ngarti Exhibition held during Turia 250 in 2019 along with invitations to Mercury Bay artists , she invited Tina Ngata’s travelling exhibition, ‘He Tirohanga ki Tai – Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery‘, (which had exhibited earlier in New York, in conjunction with the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues ) to join.
Presently she is occupied with her team ,working on a community project for Kūaotunu and the broadest of Arts across the rohe, an Art Space with the kaupapa to establish
“a local community art space giving creatives an exhibition venue to evoke curiosity , conservation and exchange .“
Personally she’s following a passion and has on her writing desk, a series of foodie book projects , working in collaboration with Whangapoua fine artist, Lucy Kuchlein.
Isabel Gilbert Palmer
