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Meliors Simms's avatar

I am a woman who was active in nz /waikato contemporary art scenes for a few years until around 2015. My work was in lots of group shows , some solo exhibitions, finalist in a few awards, purchased by a couple of significant collectors and I won a minor residency, received a national prize. I was not an arts star, but not nothing.

Around the time that I was questioning whether to go all in to keep pursuing a career in the arts or to pull back and settle for a real job, I was considering a couple of Wallace-sponsored opportunities.

The advice i got was that Wallace, the biggest patron of arts in the Waikato, wasn't interested in new women artists, and so there wasn't much point in submitting for anything he had influence over. I didn't hear about his sleaziness and abuse of young men, but he was known for blanking women's art (unless they were already successful).

Wallace's gatekeeping helped maintain an environment of exclusion that I got tired of pushing against. That wasn't the main reason I pivoted away from showing art, but it was one of the last straws.

I don't regret the path I chose instead. But I'm angry that I, and us all in the arts, just accepted that his wealth allowed Wallace to distort and corrupt our culture, as well as abuse individuals.

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kgraceseed's avatar

I read today about a petition in Australia to get character reference letters taken out of legislation around sentencing, especially considering abusers are skilled at grooming communities and getting into roles of influence. As letters in support of Wallace were able to reduce his sentence, I feel like we need changes to sentencing here in NZ. His ability to get so many letters of support was tied to the same power and influence that allowed him to carry on his abuse

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