Dr Keith Ovenden, of Wellington, ONZM for services to the arts
Dr Keith Ovenden is former Chair of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Trust. He led significant fundraising exercises for the Trust, including acquiring a permanent location on the Wellington waterfront. He oversaw fundraising for seismic strengthening of the Gallery. He has overseen a gradual professionalisation of the Gallery, which now presents three major and four to five minor exhibitions annually and the Adam Portraiture national competition every other year. He has been an independent scholar, researcher and writer since 1983, after working as a lecturer of political science. He has written non-fiction books, including two important works of political economy and a biography of New Zealand writer Dan Davin, and four novels. Dr Ovenden has written many articles, reviews and commentaries on social, political and cultural issues in New Zealand.