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Louise Palmer- Naming as a Way of Claiming Histories

Senior lecturer in sculpture at the University Of Canterbury School Of Fine Arts, Louise Palmer has recently completed a new series of drawings and cast objects as the recipient of the 2020 Grace Butler Memorial Foundation Award at Ara. Palmer’s plans for the Award were outlined and framed within the context of her practice, drawing from...

The Grace Butler Memorial Foundation Award at Ara 2022

Ana Iti (Te Rarawa and Pākehā) is the 2022 recipient of the Grace Butler Memorial Foundation Award at Ara. Her plans comprise the publication of a print-run artist’s book that features hand-printed artwork, text and commissioned writing that has its origins in a trio of videos produced over 2020-21, exploring the role of printmaking and...

Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden in March 2022

Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden’s annual sculpture event opens for the first three weekends of March, (Saturday and Sunday), commencing Saturday 6th March. Its founders and hosts Annabel Menzies-Joyce and Peter Joyce have curated an impressive line up of leading, mid-career and emerging artists, commissioning works and also...

TyanHaus and Aotearoa’s First NFT Exhibition in Sydenham

To begin with, it must be made clear that NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are not a new art form. They are simply the digital representations of any kind of product. In the context of the exhibition at TyanHaus the products in questions were works of art. They are linked to a particular blockchain, Ethereum [a cryptocurrency second only...

Te Wai Pounamu- Provincial Galleries

This month my theme is the provincial – and by that, I mean nothing pejorative, but rather, to acknowledge that the art world in New Zealand is just as lively, sophisticated and worthwhile outside of the main centres. The New Year took me to very different parts of Te Wai Pounamu, and it was a pleasant reminder that there are a lot of...

Peter Cleverley, Never There Yet

Peter Cleverley has been painting and teaching for more than forty years. A graduate from the Dunedin School of art in 1974, he retired from teaching at the School in 2016 and exhibits regularly throughout Aotearoa. Cleverley is considered an expressionist painter, whose place and time associates him with a generation of New Zealand..

For the feral splendour

For the feral splendour is a group show featuring Laura Duffy, Owen Connors, and Aliyah Winter, the artists engaging with ideas that, when viewed with a queer perspective, connect the natural, unnatural and supernatural - A kind of love-song for the chaos that collectively we find ourselves living in. By foregrounding a neo-mysticism, the...

Tim Main and Nichola Shanley

No stranger to reinvention, Ng Boutique considers histories, conservation and change, even as they navigate a major relocation. In the wake of efforts to ensure a future for their original J.C. Maddison warehouse (home to both the design boutique and studios of artists, designers, and architects), Ng Boutique work their usual magic from a...

Embracing change: lessons from working in the US during the pandemic

When I left New Zealand to work in the United States, I never imagined I would end up helping to guide a community arts organisation through the impacts of a global pandemic. Thanks to Arts Access Aotearoa for giving me the opportunity to share what I learned on that unexpected journey.

COVID-19, art, and wellbeing - A digest of recent research

COVID-19, art, and wellbeing: A digest of recent research Recent research on the connections between creativity, art and wellbeing has, unsurprisingly, been shaped by the pandemic and the accompanying public health response. Due to COVID-19 risks and restrictions, there has been a shift away from face-to-face delivery towards digital or...

Research creates new knowledge and leads to solutions

Research provides evidence, creates new knowledge and helps find solutions to problems. Take, for instance, the role of the arts in supporting the rehabilitation process of people in the justice system.

Many Happy (re)Turns

Many Happy (re)Turns By Jennifer ShennanAnne Rowse is a well-known and much-loved figure in the New Zealand dance scene. Her 90th birthday was recently celebrated in style at several events in her home town of Wellington, and at a family gathering at Queenstown in the following days. London called in long-distance, as did many...