“People come in saying, ‘this is my local haunt’, which is really cool,” says Sasha Wilson, the manager of Te Pu o te Wheke Arts creative space and gallery in Kaikohe, Northland. 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

Head Judge announced for 2021 Parkin Drawing Award Dr Sarah Farrar, Head of Curatorial and Exhibitions at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, has beenselected as the Head Judge for the 2021 Parkin Drawing Prize national competition.The national drawing competition, attracting a major prize of $25,000, was launched byphilanthropist and arts... Keep Reading

Arts in Oxford Gallery is celebrating Matariki the Māori New Year with Auckland- based and now Oxford’s Artist in Residence, Nigel Borell experimenting and  evolving a new body of work exploring creation narratives in its main gallery over four weeks.   Borell was Curator Māori Art for Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art the... Keep Reading

Until February 2011, Maxine Burney had worked from her studio in the Arts Centre for fourteen years.  After ten years working from home as the studio space for her paintings, prints and clients, and exhibiting widely; she is back in the Arts Centre.   She describes the return as ‘a bit of an unscripted new chapter’ and she is... Keep Reading

Eight artists working representing various disciplines take up residencies at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora in its Arts Four Creative Residency 2021 programme.   Two series of four residencies are scheduled from May to July, and August to October and whereas to date, the reopening of the Arts Centre has been measured by the... Keep Reading

Elliot ‘Askew’ O’Donnell and Jasmine Gonzalez’s Continuum opens at Fiksate, 4 June, a collaborative body of work forged from the tumultuous experiences of the Covid pandemic and broader civil unrest and the resulting philosophical outlook the married artists adopted as a “coping mechanism”.  Taking the titular term as a starting... Keep Reading

Tīrama Mai is the light festival in the Botanic Gardens for Matariki in Ōtautahi in 2021.   Kiri Jarden, principle arts advisor for the Christchurch City Council is advocating for the arts to play a bigger role in the city’s events.  Tīrama Mai is a reimagining of previous Matariki events, focused on working with Māori... Keep Reading

A business established by young entrepreneur Ani-Oriwia Adds in 2013 is taking the world of indigenous design and digital communication by storm, using their craft as a way to enable their clients to tell stories from a uniquely Māori perspective. The company, Whakaaro Factory, recently moved into a new eco-friendly building on Katea Street... Keep Reading

The merging of two contrasting dance styles saw the birth of a new concept, ‘Popping Puletasi’, created by Cook Island-Samoan dancer, Seidah Tuaoi. The inspiration for the new dance form first emerged during her studies at the University of Auckland, where she incorporated popping into her solo assessment while wearing a puletasi. Keep Reading

Arts Access Aotearoa are partnering with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage to deliver funding targeted at creative spaces as part of the Government’s new Te Tahua Whakahaumaru Creative Arts Recovery Employment (CARE) Fund described above. $18 million has been earmarked specifically for the Creative Spaces Initiative, a fund designed to... Keep Reading

Part of its international programme, Creative New Zealand’s Global Wayfinding Programme has been set up to help artists, practitioners and arts organisations stay internationally engaged and strengthens their professional capabilities so that they can sustain their international practice.  This includes supporting artists to... Keep Reading

Te Ora Auaha has received funding from Creative New Zealand’s Arts Grants to run a series of webinars promoting Aotearoa’s best arts, health and wellbeing practice, while building networks of practitioners and organisations. Each webinar will be co-developed with partners who bring expertise and connections in a specific area of practice.... Keep Reading

The use of personal story in participatory arts projects is a contentious topic. The potential human and ethical fallout of presenting people’s personal narratives (or not) are many, and practitioners need to proceed with a high level of awareness and care. This issue is the focus of a new book by Clark Baim, Director of the Birmingham... Keep Reading

New Zealand is renowned worldwide for its Covid-19 response. What is less well-known beyond our borders is the national mental health crisis. He Ara Oranga: Report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction recommended transformative action was needed to support better mental health and wellbeing for all. The government has... Keep Reading