About

Simon Mark is a researcher and street photographer based in Te Whanganui a Tara (Wellington), New Zealand. His photos of the built environment, shown through exhibitions in New Zealand, India, Nepal and China, explore the aesthetic possibilities inherent in chance encounters.

Discussions on Simon’s practice by Dr David Cross and Dr Martin Patrick can be read in the catalogues for 13 Photographs and Marvelous Blind Spots, respectively.

Simon has co-curated an exhibition of contemporary art from Vanuatu (with Ralph Regenvanu) and several exhibitions in India (with Helen Kedgley), and has completed two photographic commissions, for Virgin Atlantic and Upper Hutt Developments.

His research on cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy draws on his experience working on cultural diplomacy programmes in New Zealand, the UK, Vanuatu and India as the travelling spouse of a New Zealand diplomat. He has a doctorate on the cultural diplomacy completed through the University of Auckland in 2008.

Career

  • Toi Rauwharangi College of Creative Arts, Massey University

  • Public Diplomacy Adviser Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

  • New Zealand Trade Commissioner, Fiji

  • Policy Manager (Projects), Ministry for Culture and Heritage

  • Management consultant, RBZ Group Limited and Arthur Andersen

  • Field representative and volunteer, VSA, in Vanuatu

  • Executive assistant to the Mayor of Wellington, Hon Fran Wilde

  • Executive director of the Museum Directors’ Federation

  • Director of the UK-NZ 1990 Committee office, New Zealand High Commission, London

  • Assistant lecturer in politics, University of Auckland

Qualifications

  • PhD in cultural diplomacy, University of Auckland, 2008

  • Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts from Massey University, Wellington, 2012

Governance

  • Chair, Appointments Panel, Te Tůao Tāwāhi Volunteer Service Abroad (former president and former chair)

  • Deputy chair, Dowse Foundation

  • Chair, Port Vila Golf and Country Club

Awards

  • Life Member, Te Tůao Tāwāhi Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA)

  • Honorary Research Fellow, Toi Rauwharangi College of Creative Arts, Massey University

  • 1990 Commemoration Medal

  • Freeman of the City of London

  • Australia - New Zealand Foundation Travelling Scholarship, 1992