Tutor
Faculty of Business, Design and Service Industries
Creative, Fashion
Update January 2026
January the 8th 2026 saw the opening to the public of ‘The Taranaki Collection 2026’. This was an Open Call collection that was pre-screened for gallery fit and then the final collection of works were installed and there was a Judge’s Choice Winner decided by the Judge Jane Woodhall. In total 19 artists were selected – several submitted multiple works.
On Sunday 11th January Jane announced her Choice at The Gallery Gathering which was a wonderful coming together of 13 of the exhibiting artists, their friends and families and other gallery supporters. Her choice was Donna Dinsdale’s work ‘Pakanga II – The Quiet That Followed’ which is the ‘sequel’ to her work “Pakanga – The Heat of The Battle’ which was created for her Solo Exhibition in 2023 (see below).
Here is the Artist Story behind the work:
Pakanga II – The Quiet That Followed continues the story begun in my earlier work based on my whakapapa, honouring the letters of Lance Corporal Dudley Lewis Stagpoole (27 Machine Gun Battalion, WW2) and the bond between a son at war and the mother who waited for him in Taranaki. While the first piece explored the immediacy of battle, this work turns toward the home front and the emotional stillness that settled after the final letter arrived. At its centre is a sculptural apron representing Dudley’s mother, Edith Blanche Stagpoole. Shaped from reclaimed woollen blankets and presented on a male mannequin, the apron merges mother and son, presence and absence. Its rigid structure reflects the effort to contain grief, while embroidered fragments suggest the ghost of handwriting. This apron stands as both memorial and mantle to those who waited in silence, honouring the strength of the home, the resilience of women, and the lingering echoes of war in the lives left behind.
Update October 2025
We are pleased to be able to announce that Donna is going to be taking up her prize of an Artist’s Residency at the studio gallery. She will be in Residence from the 2nd – 10th October 2025.
Read more about Donna’s practice in her Garland Magazine Article https://garlandmag.com/donna-dinsdale/
2023.
Donna teaches the Fashion Design major within the Bachelor of Creative Industries at Toi Ohomai.
She holds a Bachelor of Design from Otago University and a Master of Design from Auckland University of Technology.
“I love learning about cultural influences in art and design and sharing my knowledge with students and aspiring designers. I’m grateful I can practice both of my passions: teaching and fashion,” Donna says.
Over the past 20 years, she’s been building a career that enables her to do just that, as well as having the opportunity to further her own learning and curiosity.
Highlights of her career include showcasing her designs at the WOW World of Wearable Art Museum in Nelson and travelling to Tonga in 2018 to present and deliver a workshop to fashion design students at the Ahopanilolo Technical Institute. In 2019, she was awarded first place in the Menswear category and winner of the Overall Award of Excellence at the annual Hokonui Fashion Design Awards.
In her personal life, she still loves to be creative, as well as giving back to the community. Donna creates fashion and textile-based custom work for exhibitions and competitions, does freelance fashion design work, works as a community-based volunteer, dabbles in cake decorating and Raranga (Māori flax weaving). She’s also Chairperson of the Tia Marae Hineota Kitchen Committee.”
“He Korowai Mahana. To Be Cloaked In The Comfort Of Whakapapa.” 13th July – 14th August 2023 A Solo Retrospective Exhibition.
Donna Dinsdale presents a series of retrospective and new textile artefacts that encompass rich layers of history within Aotearoa. Each piece connects to her personally, highlighting a narrative that positions the work as a moment in time which reflects her bi-cultural sensibilities surrounding gender, identity and place.
Using the re-purposed vintage New Zealand Woollen Blanket as the foundation, the materiality of these artefacts display inter-woven traditional and contemporary techniques that cross the divisions between cultures.
Beyond this, the wairua of “He Korowai Mahana” represents a cloak of protection, the giving of new life and the ubiquitous struggle of connections between past and present. For this collection of works Donna also created a significant new work called “Pakanga – The heat of Battle”. The details of this work are on the exhibition page: https://fromoutofthebluestudiogallery.com/he-korowai-mahana-donna-dinsdale/
This particular work went on to win the 2024 Taranaki National Art Awards in the Fibre Art Section
Here are the judges comments on the work:
Donna Dinsdale is a very well established feminist textile artist.Here is a partial list of some links to her art practice: https://www.contemporaryfashionpractices.com/curated-space-2020/01-donna-dinsdale. https://www.toiohomai.ac.nz/about/our-people/donna-dinsdale https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/te-puke-fashion-tutor-donna-dinsdale-is-a-world-of-wearable-art-finalist/UNYYFO374GH3HRJBLGWXHDJ6X4/ https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/303477-te-puke-woollen-wonder-will-wow-wellington.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5OqP9M6e7khttps://www.thescopes.org/journal/art-and-design/art-and-design-17/fashion-fluid-a-panel-discussion
In 2019 Donna featured on the I’m Also Podcast. Here are the links including a great photographic gallery of her works:
S1 Ep10: Donna Dinsdale
I’m Also https://share.transistor.fm/s/fcacf84e
Donna Dinsdale is a Tauranga based, award-winning fashion designer. She is also a fashion tutor at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology. In this episode of I’m Also, we’re talking about how she finds time to create, teaching and current trends in the fashion industry. LINKS Photos of Donna’s work:https://www.facebook.com/ImAlsoPodcast/posts/153958332678938?notif_id=1576540144155516¬if_t=page_post_reaction Aroha Atu: An Exhibition by Donna Dinsdalehttps://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2011276198905831
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/im-also/id1487406342?i=1000459884338