Space drastically downsized for creative students in Wellington

This semester, Photography students moved from an entire building to just two classrooms shared with other majors.  

The College of Creative Arts as a whole is dealing with merged spaces, offices downsized, and some programmes pushed out of their former buildings entirely. Students say the arts school aren’t just losing floor space, but their sense of community. 

Photography student Alex* said, “It just kind of feels like our art school is sort of crumbling away a little bit, which is kind of hard.” 

Photography had been moved across campus from Block 6 to Block 10 — now sharing rooms with Fashion, Textile Design, and Fine Arts students. Once having almost an entire building to themselves, they now are left with two classrooms for sharing.  

“We’ve been to Block 6 to collect our old work, it’s just fucking sitting empty. All the rooms are completely empty.”  

Staff had their space cut back too. What was once three offices is now a single office shared by three technicians, with the other two relocated to Block 1 on the opposite side of campus. 

Alex expressed appreciation for the technical staff who helped with the move, as well as their new facilities such as dark rooms and film processing rooms.  

However, Alex criticised the university for reducing their spaces without providing adequately sized alternatives.  

“It’s like a plaster on a bullet wound. We used to have an entire block for our department, now we’ve got a few rooms.”  

Alex feared the next lot of aspiring photographers who visit Massey will see the revised campus space and not be interested.  

And it’s not just Photography students with concerns. Anna*, a Textile student had similar complaints after a refresh early this year.  

When Textile students returned to their main working rooms earlier this year, they found it occupied by Fine Arts students. Their kitchenette had been removed, and the rooms and desk space had been significantly reduced.  

“I know my peers don’t enjoy the new space, the last time I saw the studio — the old way it was last year in summer school, I was really upset to know that when I came back it would be completely different,” Anna said. 

Previously, there had been one room dedicated to the loud knitting and weaving machines, and a separate room for quiet study. Now those spaces have been merged, leaving students struggling to work without disrupting each other.  

Pro vice-chancellor of College of Creative Arts, Margaret Mailie, said the future of the old Photography building is yet to be determined. 

She said the university was working with the estate team to find new tenants — such as RocketRentals, a screen production rental company that has become a new tenant in the Screen Hub. Maile said the tenant was offering “valuable work experiences for students even before they graduate”.

She believed Photography was one of the programmes to benefit from the investment in new facilities, saying students were moved with the launch of new state-of-the-art facilities. 

“In order to ensure we continue to offer students, the latest technologies in fit for purpose, modern studio facilities, the College has undertaken a significant space refresh project in 2025.”  

Differing the opinions of students Massive spoke to, Mailie said teaching staff had only received positive feedback from students about these new facilities. 

She said a bigger revitalisation of Blocks 10 and 11 is underway. “Further works will take place in Block 10 and 11 over summer, and we are currently working with staff and architects on designing these spaces.”  

*Names changed for anonymity.