“And just like that, I had grabbed my dream”

A highlight of this years’ Wintec Graduation ceremonies was the ākonga (student) speakers, who were nominated by their kaiako (tutors) to be the voice of their peers. Having travelled hugely different journeys, and coming from a wide range of disciplines, they each brought their own reflective and inspiring words to share, with their unique speeches clearly resonating with their fellow graduates.    

The first ceremony, on Monday morning celebrated students graduating from the Centres for Education and Foundation Pathways, Languages and Media Arts with the student guest speaker Bridget Barnett who graduated with a Bachelor of Contemporary Art.

Bridget spoke about her time at Wintec and how it came to be. Four years ago, after coming out of the first lockdown she called her sister and spoke about how she’d wanted to formalise her art and do a degree and her sister had said why don’t you?

“Three weeks later I was enrolled for the Bachelor of Contemporary Art at Wintec and just like that, I had grabbed my dream.”

Bridget said her first year was a challenge due to Covid. In her words, a lot of the students who graduated this year were part of the “Covid cohort”. Even though this made it so difficult to study, she said there was a real pivot point for people to reassess how they could learn.

“A lot of people were baking back then so they’d make sculptures out of cake. I guess the advantage was they could eat it after it had been graded,” she laughed.

Bridget said she was grateful to all the kaiako and support team for the way they pivoted to respond to this time.

Bridget’s chosen material to work with for her degree was ceramics. She completed 180 hours of professional internship during her studies with Alex Wilkinson, founder of Mystery Creek Ceramics. 

“This opportunity to learn and integrate on the job meant I was able to prepare for the next part of my professional journey while I was still studying which was great.”

Looking back on her experience, Bridget said she had grown so much. She was petrified at the beginning, but by the end of her degree had completed various challenging projects designed to expand her technical skills, critical thinking, and world view, all resulting in a refinement of her creative practice.

She recalled one of the best things she did while studying was volunteering at Wintec’s Ramp Gallery.

She participated in a digital collaborative project between the George Payton Gallery in Australia and the Ramp Gallery, consisting of two New Zealand artist and two Australian artists. It was a project that took the form of exploring what it was to be an artist post-Covid.

At the end of her second year of study, Bridget held her first group exhibition, Polychrome.

“I did this with the equally colourful Jocelyn Hobbis and Kayla Bacon. I was petrified when my kaiako raised the idea.”

She has now exhibited several times and is looking forward to another couple of exhibitions coming up this year.

The mum of four said people often asked her what she would do when she finished studying and she would always say she had no idea, but she knew it would be “fantastic”.

She is now working at Hanrad Gallery as gallery administrator, undertaking her own creative practice, and is a kaiako at Wintec, while studying towards her honour’s degree part time.

Bridget finished her graduation speech by addressing the graduates directly.

“I know you will have your own stories of the sacrifices and accomplishments that you have made and the highs and lows experienced through your time of study. I say to you, well done. It takes courage, commitment and effort to keep going. But you’ve done it. I encourage you to keep going. Be exactly who you are. Be your unique expression and authentic self. Push the boundaries, make a noise and be you. Kia kaha.”

Read more about our 2024 graduation ceremonies here.