James McDonald (artist)

James Ingram McDonald (11 June 1865 – 13 April 1935) was a New Zealand painter, photographer, film-maker, museum director, cultural ambassador film censor, and promoter of Maori arts and crafts.

He began painting early in his life and took art lessons as a young man in Dunedin with James Nairn, Nugent Welch and Girolamo Nerli.

He filmed traditional skills and activities, including the make of fishing nets and traps, weaving, digging kumara camps and cooking food in a hangi.

[1] McDonald participated in the 1919–1923 Dominion Museum ethnological expeditions alongside Te Rangihīroa, Elsdon Best, Johannes Andersen and Āpirana Ngata.

Its aims were the revival of traditional art, which was in danger of being lost, and the encouragement of the Māori of Ngati Tuwharetoa to produce handicrafts for sale at home and abroad.

The School of Applied Arts, which he had founded, doesn't exist anymore, but many examples of McDonald's work have been preserved.