Maia Nuku | Ruth K. Franklin Lecture @ Cantor Arts Center
The Cantor is honored to present Maia Nuku as the 2026 Ruth K. Franklin Lecture on the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Dr. Nuku, who is of English and Māori (Ngai Tai) descent, is the Curator for the Arts of Oceania at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her curatorial approach centers Indigenous Pacific perspectives to ground the presentation of Oceanic art in the unique conceptual and cosmological connections that make art from the region so compelling.
Nuku’s doctoral research focused on eighteenth century missionary collections of Polynesian gods, and she completed two post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Cambridge as part of a collaborative research team exploring Oceanic art collections across Europe. In 2023, her exhibition The Shape of Time: Art and Ancestors of Oceania travelled to the Museum of Art in Pudong, Shanghai and the National Museum of Qatar. It explored the deeply rooted connections between Austronesian-speaking peoples, whose ancestral homelands span Island Southeast Asia, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the island archipelagoes of the northern and eastern Pacific. Foregrounding Indigenous perspectives, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue underscore the powerful interplay between the ocean and its islands, and the ongoing living connections with spiritual and ancestral realms.
More recently, Nuku has overseen the Met’s major reinstallation of their Oceania galleries, which reopened in May 2025 after being closed to the public for four years. The new installation, which includes over 650 works from 140 distinct cultures, showcases the creativity of Indigenous Pacific artists from the eighteenth century to present through the compelling lenses of global history, Indigenous storytelling, Pacific oratory, and performance. Nuku has shared, “The conceptual framing of our new galleries for Oceania responds directly to the unique spatial and relational dynamics of Oceania: horizon lines, the arching dome of the sky, and islands tethered in a vast ocean—these are the coordinates that guide and shape life in this compelling landscape … The new layout and formal arrangement for landmark works provides strong visual cues that emphasize connectivity and speak directly to the distinctive ways that Oceanic peoples approach life and use art to navigate physical and spiritual worlds.”
Please join us at the Cantor to hear about Nuku’s continued work in reenergizing narratives on visual arts in Oceania.
All public programs at the Cantor Arts Center are always free! Space for this program is limited; advance registration is recommended. Those who have registered will have priority for seating.
We gratefully acknowledge support from the Ruth K. Franklin Lecture and Symposium Fund.