Alexa Johnston, Auckland, MNZM
For services to the arts. Ms Johnston has been an art historian, curator, and writer of biographies and social history for 30 years. She was employed by the Auckland City Art Gallery for almost 20 years, leaving in the late 1990s as Principal Curator. She is a New Zealand authority on the work of Colin McCahon, and was the co-ordinating curator of the 1988 exhibition, Colin McCahon: Gates and Journeys. She also curated the exhibition, Sir Edmund Hillary: Everest and Beyond as well as writing the biography, Sir Edmund Hilary: An Extraordinary Life. Ms Johnston's highly successful book on New Zealand’s baking history, Ladies, A Plate was published in 2008 with a second volume, A Second Helping, appearing a year later while a third volume is in preparation.