Carla Van Zon

Carla Marja Olga van Zon (20 January 1952 – 29 April 2026) was a New Zealand artistic director. She worked on international opportunities for New Zealand artists at Creative New Zealand, before becoming artistic director of the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in Wellington in 1996. From 2013 she was the artistic director of the Auckland Arts Festival, where she was responsible for commissioning works such as the opera The Bone Feeder. Van Zon was responsible for supporting the careers of many New Zealand artists. She retired from the Auckland Arts Festival in 2017, following a diagnosis of kidney disease in 2016.

Early life and education Van Zon was born in Te Atatū in West Auckland on 20 January 1952, one of three girls born to Dutch immigrants, Boukje and Maurice van Zon, who had arrived via Indonesia. Her mother was a contemporary dance teacher and her father worked for Pan Am. She studied contemporary dance at the University of Otago in Dunedin, earning a degree in physical education, and then became a physical education teacher at Green Bay High School. Van Zon helped the festival turn a profit for the first time, and during her time it won four national tourism awards and the Dominion Gold Award for outstanding contribution to the Wellington economy.

Personal life, illness, and death Van Zon lived in Ōtaki, north of Wellington, with husband Gregg Fletcher.

In June 2016, van Zon was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, She died from the disease on 29 April 2026, at the age of 74.

Honours and awards In the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours, van Zon was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts.

Van Zon was voted the Arts Wellingtonian of the Year for 2005.

In 2019, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Otago, and during the graduation ceremony she urged those present to "Be curious, be open to people and experiences, take slow steps and enjoy the journeys down different pathways."