Theatre practitioner Nathan Mudge knows all about the value of accessible theatre for artists and audiences. It’s a kaupapa he weaves through all of his work. Keep Reading

Dance programmes in prisons can provide a therapeutic, non-judgmental space for prisoners, and help them work together to produce something creative and positive. They also help with flexibility, physical confidence and self-esteem, and provide a way to communicate feelings and share their stories. Keep Reading

When Andre Chumko started working as Stuff and The Dominion Post’s arts reporter in the middle of 2020, New Zealand was a very different country from the one he had arrived home to nine months earlier. Keep Reading

Dance and Arts advocates named in 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours             Among the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours are Jamie Bull, who has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to the performing arts and the community, Richard Benge (executive director of Arts Access... Keep Reading

After “pimping” a jacket for the Pimp My Jacket competition organised by Hutt Valley mental health support group MIX in 2018, Wellington artist Rosemarie Bowers leapt at the chance to pimp a hat for last year’s Get a Hat Get A Head exhibition held to raise awareness of mental health... Keep Reading

This past year has been a busy one for the big band! 'Plays New Zealand' is another full-length studio album recorded mid 2019, featuring more outstanding compositions by members of the band and other New Zealand composers.  Keep Reading

Anamia King saw an image of a singed kangaroo desperate for water drinking from a bottle held by a firefighter in New South Wales. The image tugged at her heart-strings. “It just broke me,” she says. “I couldn’t just share the post and do nothing else.” She was away from her Ōtaki home at the time, but knew she had to do something to... Keep Reading

Parris Goebel, Marilyn Cassidy and Jan Bolwell have all received New Year Honours for 2020. Award-winning choreographer Parris Goebel has become a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to dance. A distinguished dancer, Goebel led her Royal Family dance crew to victory at the W... Keep Reading

The annual multi-arts celebration returns to locations across Tāmaki Makaurau in March. Auckland’s many theatres, galleries, and unique venues will house some of the most exciting performance, art and music events from New Zealand and around the world. Keep Reading

Winning the Arts Access Accolade 2016 is bittersweet for Glen McDonald, coordinator of Vincents Art Workshop for 16 years. On the one hand, it puts the spotlight on the creative community space which supports anyone who wants to make art, with a focus on those with disabilities or mental ill-health. But in the perfect world, McDonald says, there... Keep Reading

The Michael Fowler Centre will echo the treetops of Zealandia, when our national orchestras take on an international piece inspired by 48 birdsongs. A clash of firsts will come together, when the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra team up for the very first time, to bring to life Olivier Messiaen's Eclairs sur l'au-delà... Keep Reading

An independent report has revealed Founders Theatre is earthquake prone and would need major work if it was to be saved. Hamilton's premier arts venue was closed in February, due to health and safety concerns. The 54-year-old theatre will need seismic strengthening. Civil and structural engineering firm Dunning Thornton's report said that the... Keep Reading

Sam Hunt's life works in seven year cycles, a fact he accepts has nothing to do with him. He's been living in his remote treetop home overlooking the Arapoa River in Kaipara for 14 years, so change is a coming, with milestones already appearing. For a start, he's turning 70 on 4 July: a ripe age for a man who has danced with life to a rapid... Keep Reading

What began as a form of therapy for Selwyn Vercoe is now a fulltime occupation. The central-Auckland artist has curated exhibition The Seven Stars of Matariki at Ponsonby's Studio One Toi Tu gallery. Matariki is the Maori name for the group of stars also known as the Pleiades cluster. It rises in the sky around June, coinciding with the Maori... Keep Reading

On the table, in the lobby, by the lift: Nelson artist Dan Campion's signature piece - the pistol, the bullet, the skull clad in hundreds and thousands entombed in a clear resin brick. A meditation on choice and its consequences, perhaps? Or just a bit of fun. Keep Reading