The No.8 Wire - Issue 63
Gondwanaland Ministry of Culture
Artists' Information Bureau
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An Electronic Alert for 1213 of Wellington's Creative People
63.00
ARTS OFFICE OPEN
The Wellington City Council Arts Programmes & Services Office now has a place of its own at the new Wellington Arts Centre. The small level one space, formerly Studio 8, has been converted into the Arts Office, and is now open for any and all creative traffic.
If you are looking for grants information, want to develop a partnership, are looking for resources or a venue or marketing ideas...if you want to get involved in public art, murals, collaborative project...if you want to take a tour of the arts centre and network with others involved in Wellington's creative sector....if you need a PA, video projector, graphic design or printing, music rehearsal space, a darkroom, editing suite, sound recording...if you want to talk about your project and develop it further...stop by the newly established Arts Office, level one, Wellington Arts Centre, 61 Abel Smith Street. Ask for me, Eric Holowacz, and set a time to tackle any of the above.
Or try me at
arts@wcc.govt.nz
or 04 385 1904
And thanks for making Wellington the creative heart of New Zealand!
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63.01
CIVIC SQUARE: TONIGHT
The Revolution is on!
Civic Square will be transformed on Thursday 23 February by a multi-cultural feast for the senses called Culture Revolution - a free night of entertainment that will showcase Wellington's cutting-edge creative talent.
The event, on from 9.00pm to 11.00pm, has been organised by the award-winning partnership of singer/songwriter Isobel Kerr-Newell, record company Solidwax and Wellington City Council. It is the latest multi-media, multi-dimensional, multi-sensory offering from the team that funked up city streets with the youth-orientated Culture Jam events.
Featuring the lyrical mastery of rapper MC Imon Starr, performance by Isobel Kerr-Newell, local bands Charlie's Ash and So So Modern, and the fashion of local designer Suzanne Tamaki, Cultural Revolution will be an exotic multi-cultural feast for the senses.
Also appearing will be the Hawaiian World Champion fire knife dancers, an Asian costume procession, a luminous Chinese Dragon, as well as dance, animation and art.
The performances will be set against a backdrop of mesmerising images, sounds, and languages in a variety of multi-media formats. The stage and lighting set-up will feature screens and video footage from acclaimed VJs and artists from a range of disciplines.
Culture Revolution producer Isobel Kerr-Newell says the event will be unlike anything people have experienced before.
"Anyone doubting that Wellington is the events, innovation and creative centre of New Zealand should come along. The talent, performers and creative and technical expertise is world-class. With more than 15 cultures represented Culture Revolution will truly bring the world to Wellington, and Wellington to the world!"
In addition to the line-up of performers there will be the first showing of two other multi-media pieces - The People's Gallery and Parallel Wellington which will be screened during the evening.
Culture Revolution is on from 9.00pm - 11.00pm, Thursday 23 February in Civic Square.
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63.02
KUMARA ON THE LOOSE
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=18&objectid=10368282
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63.03
ARTS HELP WANTED
Arts Advocate - Refugee & New Migrant focus
The Arts Access Aotearoa Charitable Trust provides access to the arts, by supporting the availability of projects of merit to communities or sections of the population that would otherwise not have access to them. The Trust is currently seeking an energetic, innovative, creative person to work with a motivated team on projects throughout New Zealand.
The individual employed in this position will be expected to:
- promote access to the arts in the refugee & new migrant sectors
- understand the arts and social service sectors
- understand business planning and budgeting
- have experience in research & development in the arts
- have superior oral and written communication skills
This position requires extensive travel throughout New Zealand.
Please apply in writing, sending your full curriculum vitae with names of two referees to:
Arts Access Aotearoa
PO Box 9828
Wellington
or sally.goyat@artsaccess.org.nz
A position description is available on request
For more information please contact Bronwyn Bent
bronwyn.bent@artsaccess.org.nz (04) 9164886
Applications close on 6 March 2006
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63.04
FROM RUPERT WATSON
Feldenkrais Practitioner
Learn how to help yourself with the Feldenkrais Method in 2006.
The Feldenkrais Method is a powerful tool that has helped thousands of people around the world since its development in the 1960s and later. It's used by athletes and performers, couch potatoes and the disabledSS.whoever wants to better understand how they function now, and who are curious about themselves and their potential in the future.
FELDENKRAIS CLASS with RUPERT WATSON in 2006
* At the Arts Centre, Abel Smith St, Monday lunchtimes, 12.05-12.55. From 20th Feb. $10
FELDENKRAIS can:
..help you learn how to relieve back pain, release shoulder and neck tension, free up hip joints, rediscover your pelvis and improve both your posture and actions.
.. can help you break habitual cycles of pain and teach new movement patterns that restore stability and mobility.
.. can help you achieve new goals in recreation or work, from enjoying gardening again, to improving musical performance or just plain getting a good night's sleep.
For further info google Feldenkrais and take a peek at what happens with this modality around the world.
Rupert Watson MNZFG
The Feldenkrais® Studio
@Ghuznee Health Associates
"Where mind and movement meet"
Ph: 04 801 6610
6/75 Ghuznee St
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63.05
THE ARTS OFFICE VANCOUVER
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/oca/
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63.06
MEDIAPLEX TONIGHT
A Film of One's Own (Fugue Solos)
An Installation By Louise Curham
OPENING NIGHT
Thursday 23 Feb at 5.30pm
Live Music, Projections, Super 8, Beer, Wine, Brazilians in love and a Princess to boot...
Film Archive Mediaplex
Corner Taranaki and Ghuznee Streets
PO Box 11449 Wellington
Aotearoa, New Zealand
ph +64 4 384 7647
fax +64 4 382 9595
http://www.filmarchive.org.nz
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63.07
ARTS HELP WANTED
Director/Manager
Inverlochy Art School
For full job description ring the office administrator Pamela Bradell on 04 9392177 or email manager@inverlochy.org.nz. Applications can be sent to: Director Position, Inverlochy Art School, PO Box 27-344, Wellington.
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63.08
GOOD GIGS
Hi all...
just to let you know that the Rick Jensen Trio will be playing it's final two gigs before Rick heads overseas.
Firstly we'll be playing at Happy on Wed the 22nd at 3pm. Secondly we'll be playing at the Photospace on Sun the 26th at 8pm with Jeff Henderson.
Hopefully we'll see you there.
The Aro Arts list has changed. It's still the same list coming from the same people however. The Aro Arts website is now living on the postmoderncore website. The new address is
http://postmoderncore.com/aroarts
There will be a final update being made of this website to provide a history of the exhibitions and events that were held at the 91 Aro Street space.
All the best,
Sam and the Aro Arts crew.
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63.09
NOW ON AT MARY NEWTON GALLERY
Bunny chasers new work by Victoria Birkinshaw
Opened on Tuesday 21 February at 5.30pm
Mary Newton Gallery, 150 Vivian St, Wellington.
www.marynewtongallery.com
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63.10
SPEAK YOUR MIND
'Open Door' - the new 2006 series - offers you the opportunity to speak to the people of New Zealand.
Do you, or a group that you're involved with, have something to say to the people of New Zealand? If you're actively involved with an issue, be it social, sexual, political, family or whatever, a door is about to open again on TV3 Network Television. We are looking for people to work with for our new series of "Open Door" television documentaries.
Open Door is unique in that it allows groups and individuals to speak for themselves. The format is straightforward; only people directly involved in the issues appear on the screen, rather then "experts", commentators or outside observers. The programmes are made using the expertise and equipment of the production team but with participants taking editorial control. Open Door offers the opportunity to let people "have their own say in their own way". The key to the success of the process is having a clear idea of what you want to say. We are looking for people with firmly held opinions and an energetic commitment to a matter that they're actively involved in.
The programmes, which are fully funded by New Zealand On Air, will be broadcast by TV3 who also approve for production the best ten proposals received. Many of the previous participants also found that the videotape copies of their programme proved to be a valuable and lasting resource.
For further information, visit our website at www.opendoor.net.nz.
You can apply to make a programme directly from the site, or send a brief outline of your interest or issue to:
Open Door
P.O. Box 108, Kaukapakapa 1250
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63.11
CHINA BOUND
Shanghai Duolun MoMA offers two-month artist residencies for working visual artists. Applications for the 2006 autumn residency from 1 September to 1 November must be received by 15 May 2006.
Artists are provided with a private room in a shared apartment, a studio at the museum equipped with computer and internet access, and a stipend of 3000 RMB/month.
See
http://www.duolunart.com/residence/residence_e.html
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63.12
COMMUNITY MUSIC JUNCTION
A new organisation for the promotion of participatory music-making in the Wellington area.
West African Palm Drumming
Weekly classes in djembe techniques and authentic West African rhythms.
An ideal way to de-stress or enliven yourself after work in a fun and supportive atmosphere. Participants can borrow a drum at the class if they do not have their own, Drum are also available for purchase.
Drummers will have opportunities for performance accompanying the Wellington Community Choir.
Venue: Newtown Community Centre (corner of Rintoul St)
Day: Thursday
Beginners: 5:30-6:30
Intermediate: 6:30-7:30
Cost: $5 per class
Tutor: Julian Raphael.
For more information: communitymusic@xtra.co.nz or 021 076 7570
Singing the Music of Africa
A one day open workshop for people of all ages and experience.
Be guided, though the power of group singing to unlock your voice and discover the delights of African melodies and rhythms.
Saturday 4th March, Newtown Community Centre. Led by Julian Raphael
10 am till 4 pm. Fee: $10 ($8 unwaged) for the day.
This workshop is part of the Newtown Festival and participants will be able to join with the Wellington Community Choir during their performance the next day on the community stage. For more information or to reserve a place: communitymusic@xtra.co.nz or 021 076 7570
Wellington Community Choir
An all-comers choir specialising in music from around the world.
This choir, established in June last year, has already gained a reputation as an innovative and versatile troupe. Regarded by many as Wellington's friendliest choir, previous experience is not a requirement as the music is taught by ear. Included in the repertoire are songs from South and East Africa, USA, Israel, Georgia and the Balkans and there will be many opportunities for performance in 2006.
Day and Time: Wednesday from 7:15 to 9:15
Venue: Wesley Methodist Church (Taranaki St)
Cost: $5 ($4 un-waged) per week.
Leader: Julian Raphael.
For more information: communitymusic@xtra.co.nz or 021 076 7570
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63.13
PUBLIC ART BURNS
A distinctive burning boulder is chewing through the council's art budget. Emma Page investigates.
A sculpture commissioned by the Auckland City Council as part of the Britomart redevelopment is costing $28,000 a year to look after - nearly a third of the money available each year for artworks maintenance and repair.
Made from local basalt rock, the Fire Boulder sculpture in Queen Elizabeth Square incorporates running water and has a burning flame at its centre.
But when a Sunday Star-Times photographer visited, the flame had blown out, leaving the smell of leaking gas. Shopkeepers said the flame was often out.
The council says the sculpture, created by Ngati Whatua artists, is an "artwork of major significance to the city". It is said to reference Auckland's volcanic origins and symbolise settlement on Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland) by local iwi.
Money for the upkeep of the Fire Boulder - $12,000 for gas, power and water, and $16,000 for maintenance and repair - was budgeted by the council.
Read more
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3577549a11,00.html
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63.14
CORE CONNEXION DANCE SESSIONS
Core Connexion is designed to release the dancer and artist in every body, no matter what shape, size, age, limitations or experience. We practice it to find and follow the dancing energies in our bodies and come home to ourselselves. After a guided warm-up to help us connect with ourselves and the dance, we explore our own dance and move until we are the dance.
Tuesdays: Feb. 21st, 28th, March 7th
7.30-9pm $ 10/5 concessions
Location: Dance Studio, Arts Centre, 69 Abel Smith St.
For more information please contact Ingrid Kolle at (04) 388 7939
ikolle@paradise.net.nz
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63.15
STRIDENT PRESENTS FOR FRINGE 06
LINGERING STILL
3 SHOWS ONLY
THURSDAY MARCH 2nd
FRIDAY MARCH 3RD
SATURDAY MARCH 4TH
8PM
TICKETS AT THE DOOR
BE EARLY - LIMITED CAPACITY
$10/14
IN THE BACK ROOM
AT THE WELLINGTON ARTS CENTRE
61 -69 ABEL SMITH ST
TE ARO, WELLINGTON
strident - innovative dance theatre
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63.16
MUSIC EDUCATION: TIME FOR ACTION
METANZ (Music Education Trust Aotearoa NZ) is holding a national forum on Saturday 18 March in Wellington with the aim of "renewing the agenda for music education in NZ".
With support from the McKenzie Trust, NZ School of Music, Otago University, Musitech and the NZ Music Industry Commission this FREE event will bring together all those who have a stake in music and music education in New Zealand. Includes keynote address from Jonty Stockdale from Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, discussion groups with expert leaders, and music.
If you would like to participate or find out more, go to this link:
http://www.metanz.org.nz/launchevent.html
Saturday 18 March
9am-5pm
Rutherford House
23 Lambton Quay
Wellington
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63.17
LAND AHOY
Writers have until 16 June to submit their entry to the 2006 Landfall Essay Competition, which is aimed at sustaining the tradition of vivid, contentious and creative essay writing that has appeared in Landfall's pages.
The prize is $2500 and a year's subscription to Landfall. The winning essay will appear in Landfall 212, published in November 2006.
Writers are free to choose a topic of their interest. It's anticipated that entries will provide commentary on a wide range of issues. Essays are to be original, fully developed works no more than 6000 words long.
Former winners have been Gregory O'Brien (1997), C.K. Stead and Peter Wells (1999), Patrick Evans and Kapka Kassabova (2002), and Tze Ming Mok and Martin Edmund (2004).
Otago University Press, Landfall's publisher and the competition's sponsor, will accept entries from 1 May to 16 June 2006. Click on the link below for more information and conditions of entry.
http://www.otago.ac.nz/press/landfall/essaycompetition.html
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63.18
NOW AT BATS
Purple Fish Productions is proud to present
TWO
By Jim Cartwright
21-26 February 2006 at 8.00pm
BATS Theatre: 802 4175 or book@bats.co.nz
"A sharp, salty quick fire evocation of the surface gaiety and underlying melancholia of English pub life." - The Guardian
"Jim Cartwright is one of the mavericks of British theatre." - Daily Telegraph
"Brilliantly, surrealistically and comically poetic." - Sunday Times
"Seton and de Burgh slip into and out of the characters with remarkable dexterity and warmth." - Edmonton Journal
"These two actors are hot...and bring the entire population of a Northern pub to life." - Westender Vancouver
A sharp and touching slice of English life set in a Northern Pub owned by a savagely bickering husband and wife. Two is a series of short vignettes that skilfully combines pathos and humour, with all fourteen characters played by two actors. During the course of the evening assorted customers pass through including a little boy left behind by his father - an event which triggers a movement towards a fragile reconciliation between the pub couple, as their own dark tragedy is revealed.
Two is written by award winning playwright Jim Cartwright whose other plays are consistently performed around the world and have been translated into twenty languages, including Road and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice upon which the film Little Voice was based.
www.fringe.org.nz
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63.19
GALLERY AHOY
Gallery Frames in Khandallah once again is exhibiting local emerging and art
student works and is proud to be exhibiting and selling works by Robert
Chilvers, Ilma Micthell, Graeme Taylor, Carol Banner(Pencil and
pastel/Masterton) and many others. The gallery is also inviting art students, emerging and local artists to exhibit in this new space.
Please ring Andrew (04) 4798025
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63.20
BLOG THEATRE CRIT
http://www.nbr.co.nz/smythe/
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63.21
SECRET WORKSHOP
The Performers Secret
by Bert van Dijk
This weekend workshop will introduce participants to practical ways of investing physical and vocal actions with feeling, intention and imagination.
It is suitable for singers, dancers, actors, directors and acting, dance & voice teachers.
The physical and vocal actions of the performer make up the form or the vessel of a performance. It is the performer's secret how to fill this form with content or quality.
Participants will learn how to exercise their will to create precision and clarity of action. This is a prerequisite for the vessel to be able to contain the various qualities.
For the creation of content, participants will gain practical access to the development of Presence and they will learn how to draw from their physical and imaginative resources to create feeling (Atmosphere), intention (Archetypal Gesture) and quality (Beauty).
During this process the Four Brothers of Ease, Form, Beauty and Wholeness will be introduced.
Participants are asked to learn for use as a working text a piece of poetic language (app. 200 words) absolutely by heart.
Bert van Dijk is a theatre director and pedagogue of international repute, who has directed numerous productions in a great variety of genres: classics, devised theatre, mime, physical theatre, bi-cultural, inter-cultural, musical, community and outdoor theatre.
He has developed his own unique approach to acting and voice, drawing from Michael Chekhov, Roy Hart Theatre, Enrique Pardo, Eugenio Barba, Grotowski, Decroux and Japanese Noh and Butoh.
Dates: April 22 & 23, 2006
Times: 10.00 - 4.00
Venue: Tararua Tramping Club
Mt Vic., Wellington
Cost: $100.00 / $140.00 ($50 deposit)
Booking: 04 - 233 2090
bertvd@clear.net.nz
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63.22
FRESCA
Freshfaced
BartleyNees Gallery,
28 February 24 March
Opening Tuesday 28 February at 5.30pm
Freshfaced brings together a number of young artists from around the country to offer our audience an engaging and diverse range of new work. The artists we have selected are all exhibiting with BartleyNees Gallery for the first time. Working in paint, photography, multi-media and video, the artists in this show present an exciting portfolio of current contemporary artistic practice in New Zealand.
More details:
801 9795
info@bartleyneesgallery.co.nz
www.bartleyneesgallery.co.nz
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63.23
ASIAN INVITE
New Zealand artists are invited to submit proposals for the annual Festival of Asia, to be held in September 2006. The closing date for proposals to organisers Casa Asia is 28 February.
Casa Asia was set up in Barcelona (and now has an office in Madrid) to co-ordinate a range of business, educational, social and cultural programmes between Spain and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
Any New Zealanders interested in participating should email the New Zealand Embassy in Madrid (nzembmad@embnzelandia.contenidos.com) so it can co-ordinate a response to Casa Asia by the end of February.
Click on the link below for more information about the Festival of Asia.
http://www.casaasia.es
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63.24
SLAVA IN EN ZED
2005 was a busy year for Australian guitarist Slava Grigoryan. He embarked on an international tour to Europe, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia and Germany and made his solo debut in the US. In March, he will embark on his first New Zealand solo tour.
Slava will perform guitar music of Albéniz, Turina and Mudarra, and a collection of works from Spain, South America and Australia. "These programmes are a very eclectic range of pieces", says Slava. "The instrument has a home in so many genres. I try different things and take these risks and enjoy changing musical ideas spontaneously."
Slava migrated with his family from Kazakhstan to Australia in 1981 and has since become known as the "wizard" of the classical guitar. His mother was a viola player, his father a violinist and professional drummer. His father would perform classical concerts in the evening, and then go to smoky jazz clubs where he would play drums till the wee hours of the next morning.
Slava describes the atmosphere in the house as extremely busy, full of musicians rehearsing. "It was musical madness in our house", he says. "My parents always had a hunger for listening and hearing new things and sounds S I couldn’t imagine not being influenced by that".
Slava says a musical highlight of 2005 was travelling with brother Leonard (also a guitarist) to South Africa, where the pair visited an Aids Hospice and taught guitar at underprivileged schools. He says the talent and interest in music at the schools was high, but the resources were nil. "When you know it’s going to impact on people, you absorb so much by hearing what they do and it’s very rewarding."
Slava will also be teaching New Zealand School of Music students when he gives a masterclass in Wellington on Friday 3 March. The masterclass will be held at the Concert Hall, New Zealand School of Music, Mt Cook Campus (Massey University), Wellington, at 6pm. This is open to the public; $10 at the door for adults and students free.
Slava’s New Zealand tour starts in March, with a fundraiser in Auckland on Thursday 2 March, and finishing in New Plymouth on Saturday 11 March. He says, "I can't wait to visit; I really love your good food and wine!"
For more information, log onto www.chambermusic.co.nz, email info@chambermusic.co.nz or ph 0800 CONCERT (266 2378).
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63.25
BIRD LIFE
A unique theatrical premiere at the
New Zealand International Arts Festival
Peter Hambleton and Rawiri Paratene in
Dr Buller's Birds - Survival of the Fittest
Written and directed by Nick Blake
Circa Theatre, Wellington
"After sketching the likeness of this defenseless chick, I sacrificed his little life on the altar of science and made a pretty little cabinet specimen of the skin." Walter Buller
A vivid account of the clashes between Empire and Nature in the 19th century, Dr Buller's Birds unfolds on the shores of Lake Papaitonga as two old friends meet to close some weighty business. Walter Buller, ornithologist and intimidating barrister, prepares one last specimen as he awaits ailing war hero Te Keepa Rangihiwinui.
With a haunting cinematic soundscape and a set developed with the support of Weta Workshop, Nick Blake's stunning theatrical version of a moment in our nation's history paints a landscape in crisis, where only the fittest survive and the huia is a helpless casualty. Is nature any safer with us?
BOOK NOW TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST!
Bookings: 25 February - 19 March Ticketek 04 3843840
21 March - 25 March Circa 04 8017992
http://www.drbullersbirds.co.nz/
http://www.circa.co.nz
http://www.nzfestival.telecom.co.nz/theatre/dr-bullers-birds-survival-of-the-fittest.php
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63.26
SCULPTURE CALL
New Zealand artists have until Friday 19 May 2006 to submit proposals for Sculpture on the Gulf 2007, an outdoor sculpture exhibition held every two years on the coastal walkway at Matiatia Harbour, the gateway to Waiheke Island.
One of the main criteria for the selection of works is their appropriateness to their site, how they fit into the landscape, and what visual and physical connection and interaction they have with the environment.
All proposals must be accompanied by a signed application form and artists will be notified by Friday 16 June 2006. Click on the link below for more information and application forms.
http://www.sculptureonthegulf.co.nz/artist.html
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63.27
CREATIVE COUNCIL AT WORK
Decisions of the Strategy and Policy Committee.
The Committee...
Has approved the concept design for a $1,050,000 re-development of Cog Park, near Evans Bay Parade. This will increase public space on the site and open up access to the seafront and create an all-weather playing surface. The clubs - Kupe Canoe Club, MS Amokura Sea Cadets, Port Nicholson Sea Scouts and Britannia Sea Scouts - are paying for new buildings while the dog exercise area will be moved across the road.
Has approved a recommendation the Council continue to provide the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa with funding of $2 million a year. The Committee agreed that Council officers work with Te Papa to focus the Council's funding role on attracting international visitors. This decision requires the approval of Council.
Has approved maintaining the same level of funding for the Events Development Fund, which focuses on attracting high profile events to Wellington City. This decision also requires approval at a full Council meeting.
Has approved a series of recommendations relating to possible changes in the management and delivery of arts services. Suggestions include setting up an arts-focused business unit within the Council; retaining the new Wellington Arts Centre within the Council as part of that new unit (rather than establishing the arts centre as a stand-alone trust); and also transferring Capital E from the Wellington Museums Trust into the new unit. This decision requires the approval of Council, and would then be consulted on with the public.
Has supported a continuation of all other funding for the Wellington Museums Trust.
Note: The Committee reconvenes to complete its business on Tuesday, February 21 at 9.15am.
For more information please go to
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/meetings/committee/Strategy_and_Policy/2006/16Feb0915/agenda.html
To read the report on museums, arts centre, and a new arts-focused business unit go to
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/meetings/committee/Strategy_and_Policy/2006/16Feb0915/pdf/01_Appendix_D_Wellington_Museums_Trust.pdf
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63.28
GOOD FACES
Portrait Award attracts record entry numbers
The 203 entries to this year's Adam Portraiture Award are a new record for the biennial competition, according to the New Zealand Portrait Gallery.
"The response has been outstanding and shows the wide interest in portraiture all over New Zealand," says Avenal McKinnon, the Gallery's director.
"It's especially gratifying because one of the National Portrait Gallery's aims is to foster the art of portraiture in New Zealand and the Adam Award is a key element in that strategy," Mrs McKinnon says.
She says a preliminary survey of the submissions shows a wide range of subject matter and media - from historical subjects to current political figures and children and families.
To be eligible portraits must be painted. However, Mrs McKinnon says, alongside the traditional style of painting many artists have also incorporated other media and a wide range of styles.
The Adam Portraiture award is held every two years and 2006 marks the third time the competition has taken place.
This year's judge is James Holloway, the Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery - the first gallery in the world dedicated to portraits.
The winner will be announced on 14 March at an award ceremony to be held at Shed 11 in Wellington.
The New Zealand Portrait Gallery operates as a Trust. Its aims include maintaining a multimedia gallery for the portrayal of the people of New Zealand; providing opportunities to increase public interest in New Zealand's identity through portraiture; and encouraging artists working in any medium to portray the people of New Zealand.
http://www.nzportgal.org.nz/var/cm/cm-whats-on.php
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63.29
SCHOOL OF ART
Victoria University is sponsoring SchoolFest and helping secondary school students take part in the New Zealand International Arts Festival in Wellington.
SchoolFest encourages school groups from around the country to attend festival performances and workshops, and then write reviews for the shows they attend. As principal sponsor, Victoria University has helped make tickets available to students at a special reduced price.
The reviews will be published on the SchoolFest website and a selection will also be printed in The Dominion Post during the festival season.
Each day, one reviewer will win a $50 book/CD voucher, and each week, a weekly winner will be selected from the daily review winners for their school to receive a $200 book voucher.
At the end of the festival, the best overall review will win a Dell Inspiron(tm) 510 Notebook. One student, Nicholas Meehan, Year 12 at Scots College, has already won a Dell Inspiron(tm) 510 Notebook, simply by registering for the SchoolFest competition.
"The festival is an excellent opportunity for students from all over the country to engage with artists and performers from all over the world," says Marketing Manager Wendy Goldswain.
"The university has been involved with the Festival for a number of years now, and we're pleased to be able to support school groups and the festival itself. It's an excellent opportunity for students to take part in creative activities and construct reviews that they know have the chance to be published."
The SchoolFest review competition will run until the end of the Festival. The winner will be announced at the end of March.
Creative New Zealand has supported the New Zealand work in New Zealand International Arts Festival. Click on the link below for more information about the festival.
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/schoolfest/index.aspx/
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63.30
MUM'S THE WORD
Downstage Theatre invites you to a beautiful celebration of life, laughter, music and love.
Mum's Choir is a musical comedy that will have you laughing, weeping, identifying and singing along with the boisterous O'Reilly clan as they celebrate the life of their beloved matriarch who has passed away. She leaves her five grown children with the daunting task of her dying wish - that they all to pull together to sing Faure's Requiem at her funeral.
Amidst sibling rivalry, Yorkshire pudding catastrophes, reminiscing with classic hit songs, clearing out the liquor cabinet and dealing with Aunty Nola, will the family manage to pull themselves together in only three days to see their mother's last wish fulfilled?
"This is everyone's story" says director Catherine Downes. "During its seven week season at the Court Theatre (Christchurch) there was a real sense by the end of every show that this 'Mum's Choir experience' was no longer a mere play - it was an intimate event we now all shared."
Downes has assembled a stellar cast for her debut as Downstage Theatre's Director. Dame Kate Harcourt (Wednesday to Come), Heather Bolton (Boston Marriage), Jeff Kingsford-Brown (The Real Thing), Jamie McCaskill (King and Country), Carmel McGlone (Top Girls), David McKenzie (Albert Speer) and Lyndee-Jane Rutherford (In Flame).
Mum's Choir is Alison Quigan's 10th play and it's fast on its way to becoming a new New Zealand classic. Written by Quigan after the death of her own Mother the play was inspired after a group of her mother's friends offered to sing at the funeral. "We were humbled by the many lives she had touched and now to witness their loss. We miss her of course, but actually her influence is still very strong with us and we hold her near. I am honoured to share it with you."
"Funny and moving, true to life yet immensely theatrical ... a musical trip that takes you to the heart of your own personal experience of love and loss."
- The Press, Christchurch 2005
Running Time
2 hours 10 minutes [incl. interval]
Other Performance Times
$20 Public Preview Friday 24 March
Post Show Talkback Monday 27 March
Saturday 29 April 2.00pm
No Show: Good Friday 14 April, Easter Monday 17 April,
or Anzac Day Tuesday 25 April
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63.31
NEW GM AT NZ OPERA
Aidan Lang, a British international opera stage director and artistic director, has been appointed General Manager of New Zealand Opera.
Mr Lang has worked in a variety of roles in the opera world for the past 23 years. He has extensive experience both as a freelance stage director and a senior arts manager with notable opera companies and arts festivals in Britain and Europe. He is the former Artistic Director of Opera Zuid in Maastrict, The Netherlands; former Principal Associate Director at Glyndebourne Festival Opera; and Director of Production of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. He is currently Artistic Director of the Buxton Festival, a position he has held for the past six years.
New Zealand Opera's Chairman, David Gascoigne said: "Aidan Lang is a talented opera professional who has earned high respect from all the organisations he has worked closely with over his career. He is regarded as an exceptional team leader, having inspired by enthusiasm and led by example. He will bring a richness and depth of experience to the company and to its productions.
"Aidan's experience, acumen and enthusiasm make him a fine choice to lead The New Zealand Opera into its next phase of development and to build upon the company's success. This is all good news for our loyal supporters, our artform and, importantly, for New Zealand opera audiences."
Mr Lang said: "I am both thrilled and honoured to be appointed General Director of The New Zealand Opera. I have long held the belief that companies such as this provide exactly the right conditions and ambiance to create opera performances with the potential to stimulate and move their audiences. I see a great scope for growth in terms of output and repertoire, and will be aiming to position opera as an essential part of New Zealanders' arts experience.
"I come to a company on a very solid footing, and will be looking to build on the excellent work that has gone before. This country has produced many fine artists over the years, and so I am aiming to develop the New Zealand Opera into both a forum for emerging young talented performers and also a place to which New Zealand's established singers, who ply their trade abroad, will be proud to return. There are exciting and challenging times ahead."
http://www.nzopera.co.nz
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63.32
POST CREATIVE CLASS
Beyond Richard Florida
A Cultural Sector of Our Own
By Ann Daly
Now that Richard Florida has moved on from the "rise" of the creative class to the "flight" of the creative class, the cultural sector is left with the question: are we better off today than before he re-classified us?
Once upon a time, it seemed a promising gambit to latch on to the coattails of the newly-minted, seemingly ascendant creative class. But it turns out (anyone surprised?) that the category is so diffuse as to be meaningless for any other purpose than the theoretical, or-more politically expedient-the rhetorical. Florida's prescription for economic growth-in part, to build the vibrant street culture that is sought after by the creative professionals who drive business development-has yielded no tangible benefits for arts and culture per se.
In my own most creative hometown of Austin, for example, Florida's theories-or at least a reduced version of them-were a boon for the PR machine. But as of yet no policymaking has been undertaken to rescue the eroding base of our famed but fading grassroots arts scene. Despite the best efforts of arts staffers, city leaders continue to focus on exactly what Florida warned against: wooing corporations with tax breaks and other incentives. Artists are left to compete amongst themselves for a slice of the cultural contracts program. We coast along without any sense of urgency to shore up the straining cultural infrastructure and without any real demonstration of belief (lots of lip service, though) in the fundamental role of culture in Austin's future. Only last month was funding approved for a cultural master plan.
Likewise, there hasn't been much obvious success from the sector's "economic impact" strategy, despite hopeful early indicators. Lumping in rock concerts with local theatre productions and dance concerts in order to claim a larger impact for the "performing arts" didn't much impress anyone but ourselves. What we learned from that campaign was that people-even politicians-don't take action based solely on numbers. Besides, there is always going to be another interest that's got better numbers; the arts will never win on economic terms alone. The latest report on the economic impact of the arts may get some media play on a slow news day, but has any such report ever prompted an agency or politician or patron to significantly bump up support for arts and culture?
What does that mean, anyway, to "support" arts and culture? What does the cultural sector require by way of human, financial, and technical resources? How do we need to proceed in order to achieve our goals? Before we're distracted by the next big idea (before Florida, there was Robert Putnam-remember Bowling Alone?), let's seize the moment to get clear about where we stand, and what we need to do. To that end, I make five modest proposals.
Read more
http://www.danceadvance.org/03archives/daly01/index.html
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63.33
PHOTOSPACE NEWS
Hi from James at Photospace gallery
Just a reminder of the new group exhibition currently at Photospace:
Americana Post 9/11 runs until 11th March, and features documentary photographs by Belle Murphy,
Brian Sweeney, Bing Smith, Simon Haxton, Jenny O'Connor and James Gilberd. See www.photospace.co.nz/expo102.htm
All images were taken in the US over the last few years, mainly in New York city. Simon Haxton's contribution is a slide show, which can be viewed in Room 2.
Music: Jeff Henderson will perform at Photospace gallery on Sunday 26th Feb. 3PM (gold coin entry), and so will The Rick Jensen Trio - this time with Sam Stephens on bass and that beardy-weirdy drummer. This is a chance to catch New Zealand's leading (and tallest) improvisational musician in a different environment.
(The RJ3 will also play at HAPPY on Wednesday night, around 10PM, with a set by Richard Whyte for starters.)
Thanx,
James
James Gilberd
Photospace studio/gallery
1st floor, 37 Courtenay Place
Wellington, New Zealand
Gallery hours: 10-4.30 Monday-Friday
11-3 Saturdays, closed public holidays
www.photospace.co.nz
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63.34
HAVE YOU BEEN
To a Fringe Festival event yet?
www.fringe.org.nz
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63.35
TAKING AUCKLAND
Thanks to a Wellington-based arts patron, the Arts Programmes & Services office has been given an opportunity to turn a vacant former nightclub in Auckland's High Street into a temporary exhibition space. We are currently looking for local artists interested in submitting their portfolio or samples of recent work, for consideration. The project will focus on new, emerging, and promising visual artists working in all media - and will offer an opportunity to show their work to Aucklanders. We hope to assemble the first group show in March, and present it in April - with the possibility of additional exhibitions to follow. Proposals from curators and collectives are also encouraged. Below is a basic run-down. If interested, just contact me,
Eric Holowacz, Arts Programmes & Services Manager
Wellington City Council
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63.36
IN THE LOO
RUA2 Productions
The Cottage
COME OUT and come on in . . .
24-27 February 9pm, $15/12/10
BATS Theatre - 04 802 4175
book@bats.co.nz
The Cottage is here to take a fresh and fabulous look at the stereotypes and misconceptions about queer culture in the capital.
This is a new comedy written by and starring Cooper Amai and Kate Fitzroy, two openly out Wellington actors who are ready to attack and embrace 'gay' labeling. Set in the toilets of Wellington's magnificent gay bar Pound, The Cottage takes its title from the European term cottaging - "scoring someone in the loo".
The Cottage explores character extremes of the queer culture and brings them to life on stage - from the dizziest Twinkie to the meanest Dyke . . . and the entire spectrum in between.
"She's 'LESBIAN', like being part of some kind of saggy-titted, incestuous tribe of sexually explorative women who despise men, are exceptionally hairy and say things like: 'I'm SO hungry for your wet pussy'."
So what does it mean to be gay? Come to BATS to find out . . .
www.fringe.org.nz
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63.37
ON THE LOO
The Arts Programmes & Services office is currently drafting application material for a mural/public art project to be situated on the Te Aro Park Public Toilets. The well-known loos are scheduled for a major overhaul in March, necessitating the removal of the existing mural paintings. Local artists are invited to submit their designs and ideas for the exterior adaptation of the renovated loo buildings between now and the end of February. To express interest in this commission, just contact
Eric Holowacz
Wellington Arts Centre
61 Abel Smith Street
Wellington
arts@wcc.govt.nz
04 385 1904
Look for more upcoming art projects, commissions, calls for proposals, and projects in future editions of the No.8 Wire.
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63.38
SCHOOL RESIDENCY
Artists who haven't submitted a proposal for a project/residency at Island Bay School, will have another chance later in the year - so get thinking. Review of the first submissions is underway, and the project team is about to select and place the pilot projects for the first half of the school year. For a basic summary of this Artist-in-Residence pilot project, and details on how to submit a proposal, just contact
Eric Holowacz
Arts Programmes & Services Manager
Wellington Arts Centre
61 Abel Smith Street
Wellington
arts@wcc.govt.nz
04 385 1904
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63.39
BARBARIANS EPISTLE
Dear Friends,
It hasn't been long since our last Barbarian newsletter, but things move fast around here. We hope you're all well!
Next up is the much-awaited return season of 'Jo Randerson's Skazzle Dazzle' at BATS Theatre, taking place 7th- 11th March, at 9.30pm.
The first season of Jo's solo show sold out, so contact BATS quickly if you'd like to book tickets. Auckland-based director Ben Crowder has been working with us on the show, which we are also taking to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April.
And for those of you that might not know "Skazzle-Dazzle" is an old Danish performance tradition (Skasle-dasle) and Jo is one of its key exponents outside of Denmark. This non-stop, variety-style theatre-comedy extravaganza features stand-up, song, dance, puppetry and wig-work. See you there!
If you missed out on our walking tours, don't worry we're doing a return season. 'Ye Olde Horrore Tour' and 'Barry's Bush Trail' both sold out during our Fringe festival season so we will do a return season mid-March, which we will keep you informed about. Email us now if you'd like to book tickets though, as tours are limited to 15 people.
'My Brother And I Are Porn Stars' is about to hit Dunedin's Fortune Theatre as part of Orientation Week, performing March 1 - 4 on the mainstage. The show was recently a huge hit at the ChCh World Buskers Festival. 'My Brother And I Are Porn Stars' and 'Jo Randerson's Skazzle Dazzle' will be sharing a venue at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (13 April - 7 May). Please come along and party with us...!
Back in Wellington this week, we are also moonlighting at Heavenly Burlesque, a cabaret extravaganza at the Paramount as part of the Fringe. This is a wild unpredictable show, and we encourage you to go!
We hope you're having a great festival time and having a lot of fun.
Take care,
Jo and Mel.
Barbarian Productions is a Wellington-based, independent theatre company, which produces darkly comic theatre shows directed and co-written by Jo Randerson and produced by Melanie Hamilton.
www.barbarian.co.nz
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63.40
THE ARTS OFFICE SEATTLE
http://www2.seattle.gov/arts/
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63.41
DOORS OF ART
John Thackara: Cultural Theory
By Paul Makovsky
Posted December 19, 2005
John Thackara, former director of the Netherlands Design Institute, has spent the past decade championing smart design with a conference series, Web site, and global network--based in Amsterdam and Bangalore--called Doors of Perception. Metropolis senior editor Paul Makovsky spoke to Thackara about his latest project, "Designs of the Time (DOTT)"; his new book, In the
Bubble: Designing in a Complex World (MIT Press); and how we should redefine progress.
You've recently become director of "DOTT," a series of projects involving social renewal in northeast England. What's the goal?
The region--which includes city, countryside, and coast--will find ways for people to rethink the role of design as something that can spur urban renewal but also social public renewal. My job is to create projects led by citizens that bring together a variety of experts, from planning entities and local municipal government to transport and health companies.
In your latest book you are tough on design as it's currently practiced.
What are the issues?
We have major problems to deal with, such as the environment and the way we've organized our cities, and they're the result of past design decisions.
If design has contributed to the problems we face, the only answer we have is to design our way out of these same difficulties.
You make the argument for redefining progress. How should we do that?
I've just started talking to a development agency, which like any other regional or national government regards progress as something you can measure in terms of productivity, increased factory output, and more jobs.
This is the traditional way we measure progress. The problem with it is that it's like measuring the speed of a car that is already going too fast, whose speed is damaging the roads and whose ride is not particularly good for the passengers. We have to broaden the definitions of well-being and success that we use to monitor our progress. There are people like Hazel Henderson and others creating new indicators of well-being that take into account such things as the quality of your social context, the satisfaction you have with your natural environment, and the pleasure you take in your family.
You talk about the importance of "macroscopes." What are they?
A macroscope is something that helps us see what the aggregation of many small actions looks like when added together. My favorite example is that everybody in Melbourne, Australia, is crazy about building small concrete patios in their backyard as a kind of mini fashion item. When you add all those thousands upon thousands of little bits of paving stones and cement together, it turns out that more of the earth is being sealed off from the rain and nature than all the road and airport building programs put together in the same area. This aggregation of small actions is often invisible to us.
You also make a case that people design systems, intentionally or otherwise.
What are some examples of this?
The most pressing one for most cities is the disposition of transport networks because any city that is growing is required to find ways of dealing with the pressing demands of cars and roads. So if you have people living closer to where they work, you can reduce the need for transportation. The Swedes, for example, have realized that you can reduce the transport requirements of the same movement of people and goods by huge amounts just by employing existing systems more cleverly. Big systems are often the result of small actions taken by many people over time. All I'm suggesting is that people look at small changes to their work or life situations, not that they take on the crushingly depressing huge burden of changing some big thing.
I liked how you ended your book by saying that we are all designers now.
I don't expect everybody to be designing chairs and tables because we probably have enough of those at the moment. It's about the activities of human beings. The only way we're going to solve the problems we face is through collaboration. It's not that designers have to stop being designers.
It's just that they're not going to be doing it to us--they're going to be doing it with us. That's a shift that strikes traditional designers as a depressing prospect. But I've always found that designers who collaborate with those in different disciplines and different kinds of "ordinary people"
find it fascinating and exciting. It's not a bad prospect for people doing design now.
http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=1720
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63.42
ACOUSTIC GIGS
Sunday 26th is the Acoustic Routes Club concert for February starring from Coventry, England.....
Gilly Darbey
An eclectic mix of blues, folk, jazz and gospel all sung beautifully - Gilly has been singing in various guises for many years, thrilling audiences wherever she has appeared with the quality and range of her voice, "from sweet and quietly lovely, to strong and powerful enough to be heard two blocks away! " and her ability to move with ease through a wide range of differing genres.
Gilly is on the Good Morning Show on TVNZ on Thursday 23rd Feb - tomorrow in fact. Gilly says: "OOOeer bit nervous, wish me luck!"
Venue: The back Room, Wellington Arts Centre, 67 Abel Smith Street, 8pm, admission $10 ($7 Acoustic Routes members)
AND
In association with Flying Piglets and the Fringe, we are delighted to present
Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies
Wednesday 1 March, The Back Room, Wellington Arts Centre, 67 Abel Smith Street, 8pm
Tickets $25, Acoustic Routes members $20, school age children $10
Tickets are being pre sold and are going fast. Get them either from me (reply to this email) or from Alistair's Music on Cuba St, or from The Music Box on Laings Road, Lower Hutt. Lots have been sold already so contact us quickly to be sure of a seat - there may not be any door sales!
JEZ LOWE, master songwriter and performer, and his wonderful band The Bad Pennies are on tour with a programme of great music, vivid social commentary and intelligent humour. Jez is widely renowned as one of England's best folk rock songwriters and one of the most entertaining performers on the international scene. With a blend of memorable lyrics, humour and lively tunes, Jez's songs reflect his roots in the North East of England.
Among those who have recorded their own versions of Lowe's songs are Fairport Convention, The Dubliners, Gordon Bok, The McCalmans, The Black Family, Liam Clancy and literally hundreds of artists from as far away as Australia, Canada, and the U.S. Songs like BACK IN DURHAM GAOL, THE BERGEN, BLACK DIAMOND and THESE COAL TOWN DAYS have generated scores of cover versions, and are now classics of their kind.
In 1997, the BBC commissioned Jez to write and present a 7-part radio series on the music of North East England, entitled A SONG FOR GEORDIE, further establishing him as an ambassador for his native region.
Jez is one of the busiest artists on the international circuit, performing both as a solo artist and with his backing band The Bad Pennies. He has played at some of the most prestigious venues in the folk world with the band, including the Main Stage at Edmonton Festival (Canada), Tonder Festival (Denmark), The Kennedy Center (US), and the Smithsonian (US).
On his 2006 tour to Australasia the man from Durham is backed by The Bad Pennies: violinist Kate Bramley, Andy May on Northumbrian pipes and Sean Taylor, bass.
KATE BRAMLEY joined the Pennies in November of 2000 as fiddle player and vocalist. Her lyrical violin playing and lovely vocal work are a joy to hear. In addition to a career in music, Kate has a career as a theatre writer and director, running her own BadApple Theatre.
ANDY MAY joined the Bad Pennies in 2002. He brings a whole new dimension to the band, with his accordion, Northumbrian smallpipes, and whistles, this multi-instrumentalist has quickly expanded from being a sought-after session player for the likes of Kathryn Tickell, to a valued member of a live performance band.
SEAN TAYLOR joined the band in May 2004 on fretless bass, percussion and backing vocals. His understanding of the fretless bass with Irish music has been universally admired, "Such tasteful bass guitar" - Irish Music Mag; "That ingenious mix of African and Celtic" - Steve Dietrich Celtic Airs Radio, USA; "Slap bass Township style with a capitol T" - Folk Roots.
With 14 full length recordings to his credit, numerous tracks on compilation projects, three songbooks and a consistently full international touring calendar, JEZ LOWE has proven himself as one of the most popular & respected performers on the international folk scene.
"Sincere, real, rootsy and honest and, for anyone who is not already a member of his considerable band of acolytes, well worth checking out." Andy Parker, Burton Mail, UK'
AND
Also in Association with Flying Piglets, on Thursday 23 March we present
Colum Sands
Colum is an Irish singer songwriter and guitarist. His songs observe the minute and humorous details of life with "balanced, non tribalistic humanity - breaking down all kinds of barriers and leaving behind an optimism and appreciation of the power of the human spirit over adversity". This promises to be another superb evening of music.
At The Back Room, Wellington Arts Centre, 67 Abel Smith Street, 8pm
Admission $17, Acoustic Routes members $15: door sales only
Gerard Hudson
President - Acoustic Routes
gerard.hudson@xtra.co.nz
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63.43
THE ARTS OFFICE DALLAS
http://www.dallasculture.org/
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63.44
YOU'RE A WHAT?
What the heck's a dramaturg?
TimeLine offers clues
By Web Behrens
Special to the Tribune
Published February 19, 2006
It's no surprise that actors get all the glory. They are, after all, the public face of any play. But consider the other artists involved: sound designer, lighting designer, perhaps a choreographer or dialect coach. Most audience members have some idea of what those titles mean -- but there's one credit in most playbills that stumps even avid theater-goers.
"What the hell's a dramaturg?" Nick Bowling asks, in the voice of a curious theater lover. Of course, Bowling knows the answer -- as co-founder of TimeLine Theatre Company and as director of some of Chicago's most provocative productions, he works with dramaturgs all the time.
The title makes people curious. It's the theatrical equivalent of wondering, as the credits roll after a movie, about the job description for "best boy." But the answer can get complicated.
"Nobody knows what a dramaturg is," remarks Jennifer Shook, who comes up against the question constantly, because she is one. "I teach dramaturgy, and I spend a good two or three weeks with my students talking about what different dramaturgs think dramaturgy is. The problem is that the term is used to encompass so many things." One of her favorite short definitions, she adds, is "information designer, [which tells people that] the dramaturg is part of the design staff. ... I'm in charge of the text and context of the play."
"`Information designer' is a great way of saying it," says Bowling, who's just spent two busy months working with Shook on TimeLine's "Guantanamo:
Honor Bound to Defend Freedom," which opens this weekend. "I work with her in a way like I work with other designers, and it's a collaborative process.
Surely Jen has a lot of influence on the way a show's directed."
Finding the answers
Even before rehearsals began with the actors, Shook and Bowling followed their standard model of collaboration: They spent at least a week going over the script. Basically, it's Shook's job to find the answers to the questions that arise; she brings her research to rehearsals in a big fat binder as a resource for the entire company.
"Production dramaturgy" is the job description most theater professionals connect to the title "dramaturg." In many ways, it's invisible work: If the information designer has done his or her job well, the payoff appears in more assured work from the actors and other designers. Generally, an audience won't leave the theater with a specific awareness of the dramaturg's efforts -- unless they're at a TimeLine show.
For five years, the company has been spoiling its audiences. At most theaters, if you head to the lobby during intermission, any crowding is the result of the wine bar. But at TimeLine, you'll always find a sizable gathering around the company's impressive lobby displays. It's dramaturgy gone public: a series of large panels (2 by 3 feet), packed with information and smartly designed by Jim Keister, a Gurnee graphics designer (and TimeLine board member) who volunteers his efforts.
The convention grew out of TimeLine's mission to present "provocative theater ... inspired by history." Whether they're tackling 17th Century witch trials in "The Crucible" or 20th Century atomic physics in "Copenhagen," TimeLine's lobby displays provide the audience with plenty of context.
It's a natural development for the company, one that began with the 2000 production of "Not About Nightingales," a long-hidden Tennessee Williams play based on a real-life tale of prison torture. Inspired by word-of-mouth about lobby displays for the Broadway production, TimeLine decided to follow suit. "Now I think we'd giggle if we looked at it," says artistic director PJ Powers, "because it looked like an art project: `Let's cut this out, and we'll get glue sticks, and it'll be fantastic!' But our audiences were really knocked out by it, and it helps take our mission a step further."
No TimeLine show has since gone without. Now it's a common occurrence for audience members to linger in the lobby after final curtain, absorbing the display and talking with each other -- or with the actors who emerge from backstage. "It really creates this great communal atmosphere," Powers says.
While plenty of theater companies use the services of a dramaturg, few share the work with the audience to this degree. "There are protocols -- which are dramaturgs' books -- all around the country, probably hundreds of thousands of them, that are astonishing documents," Bowling says. "And they're just sitting on shelves. It's a cool thing we get to do here, making it a part of every production."
The displays have been the launching point for several new TimeLine initiatives, all designed to increase interaction with the company's growing audiences. (Next year, TimeLine will move into a larger space in the Gold Coast's Three Arts Building, while still maintaining a presence in its current Lakeview home.) On its site, you can find links to the company's blog and to an online study guide; TimeLine also just began publishing a 'zine, Backstory.
`A communal adventure'
"Theater feels like a communal adventure, a communal exploration," says Shook. "It's not us saying, `This is what we will teach you,' but, `Here's some expansion. Here are some potential paths that can take you to an even bigger place than the play.'"
Recent months have been exceptionally busy for Shook, who also runs her own company, Caffeine Theatre, and teaches dramaturgy at Columbia College. While she has been working on "Guantanamo," she has been pulling double duty with The Hypocrites on an upcoming production of Tony Kushner's magnum opus, "Angels in America." Between the two shows, she has spent many weeks studying countless fascinating questions -- about politics, civil rights, national security, AIDS and theology. And that's just the start of the list.
Shook maintains an admirably philosophical outlook on her life's work. "I sincerely hope that people don't think the point of theater is to teach you the right answer," she says. "The point of theater is to make you think. For me, at least, the more I learn, the less I'm sure of what I thought was a really easy opinion. And that's exactly what being a citizen in a democracy is. The more I'm informed, the more I have to think carefully about what's important to me and how I should act."
Doing research, grappling with big issues, making art -- does Shook have the best job description in the world? Some people think so. She might not go so far to make that claim, but she knows one thing for sure: "Oh, my gosh," she says with a smile, "I've gotten so much better at `Jeopardy!'
since I started dramaturging.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-0602180233feb19,1,6400508.story?coll=chi-leisurearts-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
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63.45
COOL MODEL
Profile from The Learning Connexion newsletter
By Eva Yocum
Izzat Design
When you're involved in prop and model making, the key ingredients are imagination and flexibility. One day you might be called on to make an exquisite 'greenstone' mere that looks and feels like an ancient taonga, the next you might get a commission to make a full-sized moa, complete with real feathers, in a dynamic running pose. For the guys at Izzat design, nothing can faze them - from 2-metre long, fully articulated gorilla feet, to fake feasts, candy cane landscapes, jewellery, ice-palaces, armour and gardens, they've seen, and made it all. With a combined 45 years of prop making in the film and television industries, as well as working for and winning major prizes in the World of Wearable art awards, years working in bronze foundries, as exhibition designers, and blacksmiths, Jake, Simon, Hamish, Tony and Chris have a huge range of skills and experience, their main commonality being a passion for art and design.
They came together through a stint working for Peter Jackson on the film 'King Kong' - from there, in early 2005 they decided to combine forces to set up a freelance prop making business, and from the first weeks of the business being set up, they've not had time to look back.
When you talk to them, their range of skills and backgrounds is impressive.
Jake left high school to go to Dunedin Polytechnic's art school, then had a stint as a blacksmith before completing his diploma in fine art and moving to the UK to work at two different bronze foundries. His experience as a wax worker and mould maker led him into prop making and film work - he worked on Shackleton, James Bond, Gormenghast, Tomb Raider, Harry Potter, Charlie and Chocolate Factory, Troy and King Kong to name a few.
Simon started out doing an upholstery apprenticeship - after he got his trade certificate, he moved on to art school to do a diploma of fine arts. From there he moved on to work for the World of Wearable art, as well as doing his own freelance work and tutoring at Nelson Polytechnic. From WoW he moved on to work for Three Foot Six, working on Lord of The Rings, various stage shows, and then on to work for The Last Samurai. He also maintained his own business, making furniture, kid's furniture and doing events management. In between Lord of the Rings movies, he also did work for the New Zealand Festival of the Arts, before moving on to work for King Kong.
Hamish left school to become a trainee telephone linesman. He then spent years working as a commercial fisherman, and for the Department of Conservation. He always maintained an interest in art, and eventually his partner and friends convinced him to go to Nelson Polytechnic to do a diploma in fine arts. Two years in, he started work for the World of Wearable Art, running the art department. He did the Millennium show for WoW and then Simon called him up and told him about prop work that was available on Lord of the Rings. In between Rings films, he did prop work for television as well as other freelance film work. One of his jobs was working for the Ellerslie Flower Show, where he and his brother in law won a silver medal.
Tony started making jewellery when he was 14, in his mother's jewellery workshop. After school he went to Whitirea Polytechnic to study Craft Design for two years, before moving to Victoria University and Wellington Polytechnic to do a degree in Product Design. This led to work at Te Papa, designing exhibitions and displays, then work for Weta workshop, and stints travelling to the UK. He returned, and was working for Cloud 9 when he met Dan Hennah, who head-hunted him to do prop work for Lord of the Rings. After doing work making 'hero props' (those props that are used by the main characters, and are in close focus), such as jewellery and pipes out of a range of materials, he went back to live in the UK and got work for Atlas Models and Effects, and then Imagination - where he designed, built and installed interactive displays in the UK and Europe. He returned to New Zealand to work for Wingnut, on a series of small projects before starting on King Kong.
Chris left school to study design and fine art at Invercargill Polytechnic - before he finished the course, he discovered Industrial Design in Wellington, and left to head north. On his way north, he met a woman who worked for Weta Workshop. Her description of what she did on a daily basis really appealed to Chris, so he decided to learn his craft on the job, and successfully applied for work at Weta. There he worked on Xena, on Hercules and other television shows, as well as early work (in the mid 90s) on Peter Jackson's original concept for King Kong. During one of the gaps between shows, he went to work for Matrix Design, where he did more work for different television shows, and companies such as Cloud 9, before returning to work on Lord of the Rings and ultimately, King Kong.
Izzat Design's workshop is a wonderful, wild, space, every creative's day dream with tools for every occasion - from leather sewing machines, to grinders and jigsaws, as well as a range of power tools that would have every d.i.y type drooling. It is a reflection of the five very different personalities who work there - and the five very different paths they have taken to their common business. This diversity is their huge strength - between them they have an incredible range of experience - working with fabrics, metals, plastics, paints, woods, ceramics - almost every material imaginable. With five very different imaginations and a learned flexibility, they hit the ground running and haven't paused for breath yet.
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63.46
JUST SAY IT
Newtown Spoken Word - Summer 06
Join us for an open mike night to remember. No prizes, no pretensions - just the pure thrill of honest words well spoken. With guest spots over the night, including Craig Ireson (Karaoke Poetry, Best of the Fringe '05) Ciara Mulholland (Sniper, Little Shop of Horrors) and Matthew Simcock (Mihi).
February 24 at 7:30pm
Newtown Community Centre
Admission by koha
wordcollective@gmail.com
9348177
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63.47
VOIDS in KAPITI
You are invited to
"Artful Voids"
Collin Hope
Opening: Friday 3 March 2006 at 5.30pm
The Exhibition: Sat 4 March until Fri 10 March 2006
10.30am to 4.00pm each day
Gallery: 344 Rosetta Road Raumati Beach
Ph 04 2991330 for further information
(cash or cheque will be accepted for sales of work: EFTPOS not available)
A preview of some of the artworks can be viewed on the website
www.hope.co.nz
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63.48
TREEFROG'S GOATS AND ANTELOPE
Production company: TREEFROG PRODUCTIONS
Venue: HAPPY
Dates: Tues 21- Sun 26 February 2006, 7-8PM
Ticket prices: $10, 8, 7 DOOR SALES ONLY
Children free
Treefrogs, Oh treefrogs Oh ...
Treefrogs, goats, antelopes, bison and greenfinch may sound like an unlikely combination of creatures to find together in one room. Wellington composer, Treefrog, will bring them together, at least nominally, along with a plethora of weird and wonderful musical acts, in a Fringe show at Happy from 21-26 February. "It's a take on the old fashioned community variety show, but it's a pretty quirky take", says Treefrog.
The show includes performances from up-and-coming throat singer, Jonny Marks, Simon O'Rorke and his batterie of gleaming metal, "Taylor" Taylor the artist formally known as "Craig", and Nelson-based wandering minstrel, Roger Sanders.
Contact: David Sanders (Treefrog) Ph: 04 801 9919 Email: treefrog@orcon.net.nz
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63.49
CITY GALLERY WELLINGTON EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
22-26 February 2006
RAEWYN ATKINSON - DESIGNS ON ANTARCTICA
3 February - 12 March 2006
'Designs on Antarctica' is an exhibition of recent work by Wellington ceramic artist Raewyn Atkinson. For this exhibition, Atkinson has created a selection of ceramic objects, cast into the shapes of old cans and featuring scenes of Antarctic history and scenery. These artworks are made in response to Atkinson's trip to Antarctica in 2000 as part of the Artists in Antarctica residency programme.
First exhibited at Objectspace, Auckland in September 2005, 'Raewyn Atkinson-Designs on Antarctica' is shown at the Michael Hirschfeld Gallery as part of the 2006 New Zealand International Arts Festival.
PATRICIA PICCININI - IN ANOTHER LIFE
19 FEBRUARY - 11 JUNE 2006
Patricia Piccinini is one of Australia's leading contemporary artists, internationally renowned for her provocative yet deeply considered practice. City Gallery Wellington is excited to be mounting Piccinini's first solo exhibition in New Zealand. Piccinini's work examines relationships between humans, animals and machines, between the natural and the artificial and the cross-over between these catergories. This exhibition at City Gallery Wellington is a challenging, often dead-pan, look at the tangle of questions that surround genetics and biodiversity, and the interface between science and fantasy. Encompassing sculpture, photographs and video, the show includes Piccinini's major new body of work Nature's Little Helpers 2005; the video work When my baby (when my baby); two sculptures (Cyclepups 2005 and Truck Babies 1999) which playfully propose a stage of infancy for machines; plus a hybrid tyre/creature Radial, 2005 and major work The Young Family 2002-2003, which was part of Piccinini's presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2003.
FREE ENTRY
MICHAEL SMITHER - THE WONDER YEARS
19 February - 5 June 2006
Michael Smither is one of New Zealand's most renowned and respected artists. His painting is often deeply personal and autobiographical, delving into the domestic landscapes and outside environments of his daily life. 'Michael Smither - The Wonder Years' - the first major exhibition of his work since 1984 - focuses on the incredibly productive period between 1962 - 1979, when the artist was living in his home town of New Plymouth. The exhibition includes Smither's well-known landscape paintings and works inspired by his domestic life and family, as well as key paintings exploring political and religious subjects. The works, with their jewel-like colours and smooth glassy surfaces, are a visual feast. They are also conceptually challenging, engaging the viewer with questions about environmentalism, ecology, faith and family relationships.
FREE ENTRY
FESTIVAL TASTER TOURS
Lunchtimes during the 2006 New Zealand International Arts Festival, 12.30pm-1pm
Free 30 minute lunchtime exhibition tours to tickle your tastebuds, every weekday during the Festival (Mon 27 Feb - Fri 17 March). Enjoy the insights of City Gallery Wellington curators and educators as they offer you their unique takes on 'Patricia Piccinini-In Another Life' and 'Michael Smither-The Wonder Years'. Tours alternate daily, so pick a date, grab a mate and come down to the Gallery for a midday art feast.
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 12.30-1pm: 'Patricia Piccinini-In Another Life'
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12.30-1pm: 'Michael Smither-The Wonder Years'
A full programme listing the guest tour guides is available at
www.citygallery.org.nz
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63.50
"LUSCIOUS LOLA... RIDES AGAIN" AS CARNIVAL COMES TO TOWN
3-5 March
The spirit of Carnival is coming to town the weekend of 3-5 March in the shape of the Axé Weekend - three days of workshops and events with visiting and local teachers, and the return of Luscious Lola, an extravaganza of Latin American flavoured bands and performance!
Hosted by local community groups Capoeira Pasifika and Wellington Batucada, free classes are being offered in Capoeira and Samba percussion as part of a weekend of workshops and events. Classes include different styles of Samba percussion, Samba dance, and Capoeira and its music.
One of the guest tutors, musician Darryn Sigley (Hairy Lollies, Fly My Pretties) has just arrived back in Wellington from an extended tour of South America, and is excited to be able to share and show off some of the skills he has gained while he was there. "The level of musicianship is so high there because of the way it's embedded in the whole culture," he says. "The Brazilians live their music."
Other tutors include Brazilian musician Adriano Trinidade, currently based in Nelson, and Grant Cole, the person who introduced Capoeira to NZ, flying in from Auckland.
The Saturday night party is another exciting incarnation of Lucious Lola - entitled "Lucious Lola Rides Again" - appearing at Hope Bros, Dixon St, and features show-stoppers The Sambassadors and Cuban-style music maestros Rumbata, performances by Capoeira Pasifika and Wellington Batucada, with special appearances from the teachers of the weekend workshops, and upbeat tunes from DJ Topknot. It will be the end of an era as certain members are travelling overseas, but as spokesperson Nikkie Rich says "we hope they will come back one day and we can drop the beats together again!"
Rich says "a lot of people have said to me what a shame it is that Cuba St Carnival isn't happening this year, and I think this event is what we have in its place this year, and will be a night to remember. This is going to rock the city!" The combination of classes with Lucious Lola encourages everyone to have a go. "It's not a passive 'sit down and watch' kind of show, I'm certain you will feel compelled to get up and dance with us!", says Rich. "You will get to experience a range of workshops that are all interlinked through music and dance. Come to Luscious Lola and feel the excitement of having done a workshop or two during the day. It will be a carnival extravaganza indeed."
Beginners are being encouraged to try out all the classes. There are free beginner classes on the Saturday morning, which, if people are comfortable with, can lead into the general workshops. Rich says "the workshops are designed for people to try something new, so if a person is already involved in dance for example, you'll have a go at Samba or Capoeira music, or a musician will have a go at Capoeira or Samba dance".
Programme and info here
http://www.capoeira.org.nz/events.php?id=23
or here
http://www.batucada.org.nz/events.html
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63.51
THE ARTS OFFICE DENVER
http://www.denvergov.org/ArtCultureFilm/
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63.52
ALIEN DOME
A huge 28-metre-high inflatable white dome has landed in Waitangi Park!
The spunky young cast of the Lexus Season of The History Boys have flown in from sell-out shows in Hong Kong!
The Michael Fowler Centre is reverberating with the sumptuous rehearsal sounds of the NZSO and the international operatic cast of award-winning composer Tan Dun's opera Tea: A Mirror of Soul!
The National Bank Festival Club is firmly planted in the new Waitangi Park and is set to be the hottest place in town for drinks and late night entertainment!
The photographs for the Australasian premiere of Earth from Above, the free outdoor exhibition which will be on show for the duration of the Festival, are in place and looking exceptional!
Festival fever has well and truly arrived in Wellington City!
The eleventh New Zealand International Arts Festival opens this Friday 24 February. There is no doubt that after two years of preparation the $12.5 million dollar biennial Festival is here. And it's a big one! A three week feast of the best theatre, dance, music, opera, visual and literary arts the world has to offer, which brings over 1000 artists from 27 different countries to the capital to perform in a total of 121 events.
Currently the talk of the town is the huge white inflated dome that has landed on the edge of Waitangi Park. For the next three weeks it will be home to the acclaimed French trapeze artists Les Arts Sauts. These magicians of the air, who were the runaway hit of the 2000 Festival, return to New Zealand with an all-new death-defying and elegant trapeze show.
The dome (eight metres taller than in 2000) will house this spectacular event. The audience lies back in specially designed lounge-style deck-chairs (complete with rubber roll for added neck support) while the unbelievable trapeze show unfolds above their heads. The dome went up on Sunday night after the Wellington fire brigade pumped 200,000 litres of water into the ballast to weight the structure down. The 52-strong Les Arts Sauts Company arrived last week - travelling as they do with their children and a school teacher and even a collection of bicycles! When not rehearsing inside the dome they can often be seen biking around the central city.
Meanwhile international artists are arriving every day from all over the world. As well as the 17-member cast of The History Boys and Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun, the Cornwall-based cast of the TV3 Season of Tristan & Yseult and famous German theatre director Heiner Goebbels are keeping the Festival artist liaison team busy travelling to and from the airport picking up new arrivals. It's interesting to note there are more than 5000 bed nights booked for Festival artists alone during the Festival.
Don't miss out on the chance to get your piece of Festival action! It all kicks off this Friday 24 February and runs until Sunday 19 March 2006.
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FUNDING INFO
Application forms are now available for the next round of applications for WCC Arts & Cultural Projects, Community Festival, and Maori Arts Grants, and also the Creative Communities Wellington Local Funding Scheme. Applications close at 5pm on 31 March 2006.
Applications forms and instructions are available at http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/grants/index.html. Advice seminars will be held on 1 and 9 March from 1-3pm and 6-8pm. To book a place in a seminar please fill in the form on the website or call Barbara Franklin on 801 3595. If you can't make it to the seminar but would like to discuss a possible application please feel free to contact me.
Please pass this around your networks. You have received this because you are on one of my mailing lists for WCC grant rounds or you work for Council. Please let me know if you would like to be removed from this distribution list.
Regards,
Katharine Macann
Grants Assistant
Wellington City Council
DDI: 04 801-3158
Fax: 04 801-3635
Email: katharine.macann@wcc.govt.nz
www.Wellington.govt.nz
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63.54
ON THE ROAD
The Jack Kerouac Writer-in-Residence Project is accepting applications for the Fall of 2006 through Summer of 2007 residency periods. There are four three-month residencies annually: September-November, December-February, March-May, June-August 2007 will mark the 50th anniversary of On the Road and Jack Kerouac living in the historic Orlando home on Clouser Avenue.
Jack Kerouac lived in this home at the time On the Road made him a national sensation. And it was in this home that Kerouac wrote his follow-up, The Dharma Bums, during eleven frenetic days and nights. The Kerouac House, as it has come to be known, is now a living, literary tribute to one of the great American writers of the twentieth century. Like all the other places in Kerouac's nomadic journey, he didn't live here long. But the home represents a critical juncture in Kerouac's life, when he made the transition from a 35-year-old nobody writer, to the bard of the Beat Generation.
Be part of history send in your application now. Deadline for applications is April 30 2006.
Application forms, click on the "information" button: http://www.kerouacproject.org/
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63.55
VOICE FROM BLUFF
Cilla McQueen, David Howard and the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (nzepc) present four days of readings, discussion, launches and digital outreach in Bluff and Rakiura.
Featured writers: Rob Allan, Tusiata Avia, Jeanne Bernhardt, Kay McKenzie Cooke, John Dolan, Martin Edmond, Murray Edmond, David Eggleton, Cliff Fell, Brian Flaherty, Paula Green, Michael Harlow, Bernadette Hall, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, David Howard, Michele Leggott, Therese Lloyd, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Cilla McQueen, Emma Neale, Richard Reeve, Jack Ross, Brian Turner.
BLUFF 06 will run from 21-24 April 2006 at Te Rau Aroha Marae, cnr Bradshaw and Henderson Sts, Bluff. 03 212 7205. Free admission to all sessions, and the Community Centre, Halfmoon Bay, Rakiura. $10 adults, $2 children. For more information and the full programme contact David Howard: maxgate@clear.net.nz
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63.56
SOUP AND PLAYS
Couch Soup is a mini-festival of one-page plays. After an open call for scripts, 30 plays were selected by 16 playwrights, of all levels of experience, from all round New Zealand.
This year those playwrights are; Albert Belz, Adrienne Jervis, Jo Pattison, Barry Lakeman, Sally Sutton, Diane Spodarek, Craig McCullock, Thomas Sainsbury, Michael Nanda, Deisiree Gezentsvey, BJC III, Ross McLeod, Caroline Hastings and Stephanie Christian.
Hamilton - 21st-25th Feb, 8pm @ Meteor, 1 Victoria St. Wellington - 28th-4th Mar, 8pm, Bergman @ the Paramount - Check out their website http://www.urbanvineyard.orcon.net.nz
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63.57
I AM AN ISLAND
Islanded:
ContemporaryArt fromNew Zealand,SingaporeandTaiwan
EXHIBITIONDATES: 24 February - 14 May
OPENING:Thursday 23 February, 6.15pm
ARTISTS'TALKS:
Friday24 February, 6.30pm: HoTzuNyen,Singapore
Saturday25 February, 12.30pm:Kai Syng Tan(Singapore), Amanda Heng(Singapore)and Charles Lim(Singapore)
In conjunction with the New Zealand International Festival of Arts, the Adam Art Gallery presents Islanded: Contemporary Art from New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan. This major exhibition features work by 12 internationally renowned and emerging contemporary artists from New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan - many of whom have created new work for this exhibition.
This unique collaboration between the Adam Art Gallery, The Substation (Singapore) and the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (ICAS), focuses on the shared histories and geographies of these post-colonial island nations.
Islanded includes work in a variety of media ranging from painting to video, sound installation to sculpture, all of which respond to the idea of how "island-ness" and being "on the edge" play a role in these island-countries' imaginings and (re)inventions of themselves.
Islanded features work by four artists from New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan, many of whom have made new work for the exhibition, and will be exhibiting in New Zealand for the first time.
The exhibition will tour to Singapore and Taiwan in 2006 and 2007, and features work by:
Stella Brennan (NZ), Regan Gentry (NZ), Amanda Heng (Sing), Ho Tzu Nyen (Sing), Richard Killeen (NZ), Tsui Kuang Yu (Taiwan), Charles Lim (Sing), Wu Mali (Taiwan), Ani O'Neill (NZ), Tan Kai Syng (Sing), Tsai Anchih (Taiwan) and Yao Jui Chung (Taiwan).
This weekend the Adam Art Gallery is pleased to present a unique series of free artists' and curators' talks. On Friday 24 February at 6.30pm, Singaporean artist, Ho Tzu Nyen who is also an acclaimed art-writer, film-maker, and lecturer, will present an illustrated lecture highlighting the mythologistaion of nationhood and the fictionalisation or culture in Singapore.
This will be followed by an exciting series of artists' and curator's talks on Saturday 25 February at 12.30pm. This series of talks will begin with Islanded co-curator and highly acclaimed art historian, critic and curator, Eugene Tan, who will be discussing his experiences as curator of Singapore's national pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennial, and his role as co-curator of the 2006 Singapore Biennial. Tan's lecture will be followed by a series of artists' talks presented by participating artists Kai Syng Tan (Singapore), Amanda Heng (Singapore) and Charles Lim (Singapore), all of whom are showing in New Zealand for the first time. These artists will discuss their work in Islanded situating it within the broader context of their practice.
These talks are free, and will be held at the Adam Art Gallery.
Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, Gate 3, Kelburn Parade, Wellington
hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 11am - 5pm (closed Monday/ University and Public Holidays)
tel: 04-463 5489 or 04-463 5229, email: adam-art-gallery@vuw.ac.nz, website: www.vuw.ac.nz/adamartgal
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63.58
ART RADIO
The Arts on Sunday with Lynn Freeman
Sunday 26th February - 12.35pm - 15th anniversary of Words on Wheels or WOW, live interview from Waipu with two of the writers touring Northland - novelist Paula Morris and writer for adults and children, Richard Wolfe
Duck Weather, the first collection of poetry from Christchurch-based writer Barbara Strang, published by the Poets Group in Lyttleton.
Paula Green talks about children's poems from the zoo in Flamingo Bendalingo, an Auckland University Press publication.
And (if time) Wellington's first multi-ethnic writers' group is about to publish an anthology of work World Words - interview with three of the contrubutors, Tatjana Schaefer, Yilma Tafere Tasew, and Geetha Kurudi. 'World Words, an anthology of International Writers in NZ,' is published by HeadworX and is being launched on Tuesday.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/nr/programmes/artsonsunday
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63.59
FRINGE FAREWELL
The end is nigh and the best party is yet to come.
Fringe 06 Closing Night 'Monsta' Awards Ceremony
Paramount Theatre, Courtenay Place
Sunday March 5, 5pm
Forget the Oscars, it's time for the 'Monsta's!
FREE Closing night Party!
Director Karen Blyth sees the Awards Ceremony as an important send off for Fringe 06. "It's a chance for myself and the Fringe Board to congratulate and celebrate all the Fringe participants. This year has been an outstanding year for quality shows and talented artists. There's been a great buzz around town regarding Fringe shows. If this is an indication of things to come then our Fringe Festival can only get better and better!"
The Fringe 06 'Monsta Awards Ceremony contains thirteen categories and so thirteen chances for Fringe artists to win their very own 'monsta.' The 'monsta' awards are designed by Matt Hunkin and sculpted by Carlos Wedde. Prizes (sponsors products) will also be allocated to the winners on the night.
Entertainment on the night includes Sam Manzanza Band and Hot Dance Music (afro music and dancehall party tunes to shake the booty) and DJ Ladies - Twee Jays.
All are invited to the final Fringe festivities at the Paramount Theatre, Sunday March 5, 5pm. So come along and see if your favourite Fringe 06 show picks up a Monsta!
www.fringe.org.nz
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63.60
TRANSPLASTIC CUBA MALL
Auckland-based artist John Radford is about to transform the iconic bucket fountain with his patented clay treatment...and give Wellington a bold new product to consume...
http://www.johnradford.co.nz/
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63.61
A FINE SETTING
Taste the Arts - at the Museum of Wellington City & Sea
Call for proposals
'Taste the Arts' is a Wellington-wide two-day event organised by Arts Wellington taking place over the weekend 13-14 May 2006, to introduce new audiences to Wellington arts establishments. The Museum of Wellington City & Sea will join many other arts organisations in putting on a special event to celebrate Wellington's arts, culture and heritage.
In our Harbour Board Room (also called the Von Kohorn Room) is a huge and impressive baize-covered table originally used for Harbour Board meetings. The museum would like to use the table as its base for the 'Taste the Arts' project, commissioning 15 artists to create a place setting for the table, so that the whole Board Room looks like there is a huge banquet just about to start.
We would like an artist's response to the idea of a banquet place setting:
* The work can be in any media, using any objects.
* The museum will provide a board to fit a section of the table (the table has both curved sections and straight sections - see attached plan). The board can be used as a base or a part of the artwork, but the underside of the board MUST be kept clean and smooth. This will be sitting directly on the baize, and so there must be no fixings or stuck-on bits of media on the underside of the board. Boards will be given out after the proposal stage.
* The museum will pay each selected artist a $100 fee upon delivery of the artwork to the museum.
* Artists intending to participate should provide the museum with a brief proposal (which can be a description in writing, or a sketch, or a photograph, or even a maquette) by February 28th 2006. Artists will be notified of acceptance by the 28th March
* NB. If the shape of section of table chosen by the artist is not available (for example if everyone chooses a curved section), the museum reserves the right to ask the artist to alter their design to fit an alternative section.
* After the event, the work must be collected from the Museum.
Please also note:
* The museum asks artists to consider safety, ease of installation and removal and the ability of the work to withstand the general public and playful children. Works that are considered unsafe by the museum will be ineligible.
* The Museum of Wellington City and Sea is committed to maintaining and supporting events that include participation and are not discriminatory or offensive in anyway.
* All risk in the exhibition of an artwork remains with the artist at all times, irrespective of whether the work is being handled by a member of the exhibition staff
* The proposals will be considered by a panel drawn from the Museum and The Arts Centre. Decisions of the panel will be final. If there are insufficient proposals or the panel considers they are not of sufficient merit the Museum reserves the right to cancel the project.
Arts Wellington will be promoting the event, plus the Museum will add it to its usual information about what's on. We expect visitation to be around 1500 over the weekend. The museum also plans to have an opening celebration for artists and others on the Friday afternoon or early evening.
Please address proposals to
Paul Thompson, Director
Museum of Wellington City and Sea
Queen's Wharf, Wellington
or PO Box 893
Wellington
or email: paul.thompson@wmt.org.nz.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss anything, please contact the exhibition curator Alice Masters on 021 033 6285. If you would like to look at the table, the Board Room is open during Museum opening hours - every day from 10am until 5pm. The room is on the first floor.
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63.62
THE ARTS OFFICE CHARLESTON
http://www.ci.charleston.sc.us/dept/?nid=15
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63.63
GROWN OVER
'It's a Jungle in There'
The Place: ROAR Gallery, 55 Abel Smith St, 1st Floor, above 'Real Groovy', Wellington
to 5th March 2006
The Cost: Free. Nature is for everyone, explore at your leisure.
The Artist: Sian Torrington, former fashion designer, now for your experiential pleasure transforms a white gallery space into a real, living place, where you can wander in the woods, post your truths and send a postcard home.
While normal life ran along its usual paths and business continued as normal, in a little studio, far, far away, something was growing.! Whilst the beleaguered artist worked to keep the wayward drawings fixed to the page and flat behind the glass, the growing things had other plans. And in the night, a forest grew, and became the walls all around...
This Fringe, the undergrowth is emerging. Sian Torrington, in her inimitably eclectic magpie style, presents shiny things glittering amongst paper leaves and branches. She creates the chaotic forest which multiplies behind every tidy door, beneath every polished floor. Using the forest as a metaphor for the unexplored subconcious mind, and the almost obsessive repetitive practice of making as a way to explore the patterns of routine with which we attempt to order our lives.
Made of paper and cardboard, this installation explores the boundary between rubbish and treasure. It explores the notion that making art is a personal form of collection, gathering and hoarding the things which catch our eye, and by placing them togethe! r, finding some collective meaning. It also explores the idea that the things we make have a life of their own. Cut strings of leaves are allowed to fall and drape from the ceiling, throwing their shadows against the walls.
This show, in congruence with ROAR Gallery's focus on outsider art, works with the idea that making art can be equated with making and exploring a world of one's own. Private and solitary, the studio becomes a repository of physically expressed unconscious thought. To experience this world is to be a part of this world. The forest is all around you.
ROAR! gallery
1st Floor, 55 Abel Smith Street
roargallery@paradise.net.nz
(04) 385-7602
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63.64
GOOD WORDS
A panel of US jurors is currently reading hard to decide who will receive the $65,000 Prize in Modern Letters. The six shortlisted writers are Tusiata Avia, William Brandt, Kate Camp, Jo Randerson, Carl Shuker, and Louise Wareham. For the record, the US readers are novelist and poet Stephen Dobyns, Barbara Epler, an editor at the famed New Directions publishing house, and novelist and biographer Geoffrey Wolff. We do not envy them their difficult task.
The Prize will be presented on Saturday 18 March, during Writers and Readers Week. Immediately before the award ceremony, all six shortlisted writers will present their work at a scheduled session called 'Winning Words' - 5.15 at the Embassy Theatre. See
www.nzfestival.telecom.co.nz/writers-and-readers/winning-words.php
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63.65
NEXT UP AT ENJOY
Rhythm is Best Considered Fractally...
Chris Cudby
Opening Tuesday February 14 6pm
Wednesday February 15 - Friday March 10
Artist talk Thursday March 2 6pm
Over the next four weeks Chris Cudby will be a daily resident at Enjoy, producing weekly printed booklets with accompanying audio CDs documenting his artistic activities. These publications will be available for purchase in editions of twenty at the beginning of each week and will include drawings, photos, music, interviews, collaborations and sound. Each edition will be colour coded and sold at the beginning of the week:
Yellow week one (opening night)
Green week two
Blue week three
Magenta week four
Red week four (end of week)
Within this format Chris will develop a slow-motion mix of audio and visual narratives that mix, bounce, and collapse into one other, while remaining easily digestible as bite-sized chunks. Perhaps feeding a collector mentality, the collection of all five editions provides individuals with an intimate overview of the entire project.
Rhythm is Best Considered Fractally engages with ideas of multi-tasking, space/time manipulation and interstitial states. Rhythm is Best Considered Fractally looks at the remote-viewing and re-organisation of various time based activities with the use of colour as a (non-exclusive) ordering principle.
Chris Cudby graduated from Elam, Auckland University in 2003, where he studied in the Intermedia department. For the last two years he has performed extensively throughout New Zealand as half of the musical/sound performance duo of 'Golden Axe'. Chris has shown his work in various galleries and was involved with establishing artist-run space Special gallery, Auckland, where he has both exhibited and curated.
Enjoy's five year retrospective catalogue is on sale now. Contact the gallery to find out how you can get your limited edition copy
Enjoy Public Art Gallery
Level 1, 147 Cuba Street
Wellington
04 384 0174
enjoy@enjoy.org.nz
www.enjoy.org.nz
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63.66
TWO
By Jim Cartwright
21-26 February 2006 at 8.00pm
BATS Theatre: 802 4175 or book@bats.co.nz
"Supremely confident performers, physical, deliberate and graceful."
Winnipeg Free Press
A sharp and touching slice of English life set in a Northern Pub owned by a savagely bickering husband and wife. Two is a series of short vignettes that skilfully combines pathos and humour, with all fourteen characters played by two actors. During the course of the evening assorted customers pass through including a little boy left behind by his father - an event which triggers a movement towards a fragile reconciliation between the pub couple, as their own dark tragedy is revealed.
Two is written by award winning playwright Jim Cartwright whose other plays are consistently performed around the world and have been translated into twenty languages, including Road and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice upon which the film Little Voice was based.
Purple Fish Productions is a diverse and energetic company founded in June 2001 by Luan de Burgh from London and Michelle Seton from New Zealand (now based in London). Since its inception Purple Fish Productions has produced shows in London (including Keyboard Skills by Lesley Bruce and Can't Pay? Won't Pay! by Dario Fo), taken part in the 2002, 2003 & 2004 Canadian Fringe Festivals with Jim Cartwright's Two, Michael Frayn's The Two of Us and their hugely popular company devised piece Perseus Uncovered which also played to sell out houses at the Wellington Festival (BATS Theatre) in New Zealand in 2005. Purple Fish Productions has been funded by the UK Lottery to produce two Children's shows Told by a Dodo and More Tales from a Dodo which played at children's theatres, festivals and schools in London, Ireland and Canada.
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63.67
ON AIR
Wellington Access Radio
Studio Recording:
Ever dreamed of producing your own radio show??? Well, here's your chance. Here at Access Radio we have all the facilities you need to produce, record and create your own show and even record 'live' to air!
If you are a musician, poet, singer song-writer...or you are interested in affordable recording studio time, or perhaps have an idea for a show you'd love to record ...get in touch with Wellington Access Radio for affordable prices at competitive rates. Have your say and get a group together to produce your own show. We offer a variety of rates to hire the studios for programming or pre-recording with group/membership rates and individual rates available.
Please call us PH: 3857210 or email info@accessradio.org.nz
http://www.accessradio.org.nz/
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63.68
FEAR OF FLYING
Les Arts Sauts et Ola Kala
Performing breathtaking, high-flying acts in a 28-metre-high white dome, the acclaimed French company Les Arts Sauts present their new work, Ola Kala.
An awe-inspiring aerial trapeze spectacle, the show blends acrobatic and technical feats in an elegantly surreal atmosphere charged with the exhilaration of vertigo. The thrill of danger is heightened by the company's use of a cross trapeze - there is a very real risk of collision, and the occasional performer may tumble to the safety net below.
The action is accompanied by spectacular lighting, and hypnotic live music performed by musicians suspended in space 12 metres above ground. Specially constructed deck chairs allow the audience a perfect view of the performers above as they fly and fall in perfect harmony.
http://www.nzfestival.co.nz/theatre/les-arts-sauts.php
http://www.arts-sauts.org/
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63.69
ALOHA GIG
Creative New Zealand and Fulbright New Zealand are calling for applications to their international residency for New Zealand writers wishing to work on a project exploring Pacific identity, culture or history. Based at the Centre for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawai'i, the residency will run for three months from mid August 2006.
Applications to the 2006 Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writers' Residency at the University of Hawai'i close on Monday, 3 April 2006. Open to writers across all genres, including playwrights, fiction and non-fiction writers, poets and screen writers, the residency includes return airfares, accommodation costs and an artist stipend of NZ$6000 per month. Previous recipients are filmmaker Sima Urale and performance poet Tusiata Avia.
Hawai'i is a hub for Pacific writing and has become a well-established centre for publishing the work of Pacific peoples. It is also an important link to mainland United States and has a flourishing indigenous culture.
The recipient of the 2006 Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writers' Residency at the University of Hawaii will have had work published or accepted for publication. In the case of scriptwriters or playwrights, he or she will have had work performed or accepted for performance.
The recipient will be expected to work on an approved project during this time and contribute to other opportunities provided by the residency. There will also be an opportunity for professional development, including invitations to give lectures and interviews, make contact with suitable agents and publishers, and enhance the development of New Zealand Pacific literature.
By the end of the residency, the recipient will be expected to have completed a significant amount of writing. The recipient will also be required to write a report, demonstrating the residency's tangible benefits to New Zealand Pacific literature.
www.creativenz.govt.nz
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63.70
THE ARTS OFFICE PHOENIX
http://www.ci.phoenix.az.us/ARTS/artscomm.html
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63.71
BETWEEN PLAYS
COME ONE, COME ALL
TO DOWNSTAGE's HAPPY HOURS...
what's this you ask?
Starting now, Downstage is instigating 'Happy Hours' at the Downstage Middle Bar - Hurrah! With discounts on a select range of bar product you're sure to have a happy hour, or two, with the Downstage staff.
We'd love to see you.
DOWNSTAGE HAPPY HOUR, 5PM - 7PM*, EVERY FRIDAY ALL WELCOME *NB, Downstage's Friday show goes up at 8pm if you fancy seeing some top quality theatre after enjoying some good company and ambience.
Three cheers for Happy Hour... hip hip, HURRAH! hip hip HURRAH! hip hip..
HURRAH!!!
Downstage Theatre
PO Box 9441
12 Cambridge Tce
Wellington
New Zealand - Aotearoa
Booking Line +64 4 801 6946
www.downstage.co.nz
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63.72
PAINTER IN THE HALL
Come and meet an artist at work.
In association with Fringe 06, Creative New Zealand and the Wellington City Council, Paul Forrest will transform the Michael Fowler Centre foyer into a colour filled painting studio and gallery.
Paul will be at the easel everyday creating magic on canvas before your eyes.
Wednesday 22 February - Sunday 19 March
Daily 11am - 10pm
Cost: FREE
Michael Fowler Centre
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63.73
LIT GIG
Visiting artist - Poetry or Fiction
Massey University
The successful candidate will set aside much of this time to develop his or her own work, culminating in at least one public reading. Additionally, the visiting artist will:
Run a workshop and give a lecture at the Creative Writing Contact Course, 4-6 July;
Help internal creative writing students organise a group reading for the "Arts on Wednesday" programme;
Act as a resource for internal creative writing students;
Give a public lecture.
To apply, please send cover letter, CV and a recent writing sample
(maximum of 10 pages poetry, 20 pages prose) to:
Carol Seelye
School of English & Media Studies
Private Bag 11-222
Palmerston North
e-mail: C.A.Seelye@massey.ac.nz
Telephone: (06) 356 9099 Ext 2730
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63.74
ENCHANTING MIMES
Creature-objects, bold masks, brightly coloured forms, fabric, light and shadows moving silently with wit, poignancy and charm encapsulate the work of Mummenschanz, a Swiss-based mime company touring New Zealand from 10 March.
The company will be presenting Mummenschanz 3 x 11, a retrospective of its 33 years of existence. Created by Swiss Bernie Schurch and the late Andreas Bossard, and Italio-American Floriana Frassetto, Mummenschanz is now completed by Danish Jakob Bentsen, Italian Raffaella Mattiolo and with Swiss Technical Director Ueli Riegg.
Founded under the name Mummenschanz in 1972, the company creates theatre without words, without linguistic and cultural borders. In the words of Dario Fo, their art is "not just creative, it is a creation". Everyday objects and materials are transformed into abstract forms. Through these and the simplicity of the costumes and cleverness of the expressive masks, the actors engage the audience with their silent dialogue. Snapshots of human interaction transcend all barriers and sow seeds of entire stories in the audience's imagination.
Wellington critic Laurie Atkinson wrote in The Evening Post, June 1988: "Vaguely familiar animals and weirdly beautiful creatures that one imagines are found only in the depths of the oceans, fight ... and transform themselves into even more exotic creations ... Simplicity, boundless imagination and superb professionalism are surely enough attributes for any theatrical company."
The seven-centre tour, under the aegis of the Embassy of Switzerland and Capital Theatre Productions, begins in Christchurch on 10 March, followed by performances in Blenheim, Palmerston North, Napier, Tauranga, Rotorua and Auckland's North Shore. Mummenschanz will also give workshops in some centres.
For more information contact Tour Manager Dawn Sanders (Tel:04-384 1300 or 04-476 8369 Mobile: 027 283 6016 Email: Action-Sanders@xtra.co.nz). Or click on the link below.
http://www.ticketek.co.nz
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63.75
THE BLONDE GUY GOES TO BRUSSELS
NZ short film A&E, written and directed by Charlie Bleakley - best known as the blonde guy Graham in the hit NZ movie 'Scarfies' - has been selected for the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film; the largest in its genre with attendances of over 50,000 each year.
'A&E' was commissioned by Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School and produced in association with the NZ Film School - the first film to be produced under an annual co-production agreement initiated by Miranda Harcourt, head of acting at Toi Whakaari, and John Reid, director of the Film School.
'A&E' features ex-students Ryan O'Kane and Serena Cotton, stars of cult TV series 'Insiders Guide to Love', and premiere screenings were held at the Paramount Cinema in Wellington and the Academy Cinema in Auckland late last year.
Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival
http://www.bifff.org/en/
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63.76
WELL SCRIPTED
Playmarket is now accepting applications for the Aotearoa Playwrights Conference 2006 up until a deadline of Friday April 28th. The conference will be held Saturday June 17 until Sunday June 24. As in 2004 it will be residential and held as part of the FUEL Festival of New Zealand Theatre in Hamilton.
Places are strictly limited. Our aim is to appeal to as many playwrights writing for the professional stage as possible, whatever stage their work is at, and to include a wide range of development options.
We are seeking applications from New Zealand playwrights who have previously been professionally produced with a project they wish to work on. This may be a few scenes, a play at first or close to final draft, or even a project at the conceptual stage (i.e. an idea) where the writer would like to explore how their writing develops off the page in collaboration with other practitioners.
In this regard we are planning to offer at least the following resources - but your suggestions may provide a range of others:
* One on one sessions with leading dramaturgs and other practitioners
* Playreadings of your work, and work sessions on your play in facilitated group sessions.
* On-the-workshop-floor exploration and presentation (if desired) sessions allowing you to get excerpts from your work or ideas up on their feet in collaboration with other practitioners.
We will also be providing again keynote speakers (to be announced), playreadings, FUEL Festival performances and, most importantly, lots of social and theatrical opportunities for interaction.
The cost of the conference is $370 (variable if other services are provided as described above) and includes eight nights motel accommodation, eight breakfasts and lunches, a conference dinner and many parties, some official some not.
The central theme of the conference is interaction. Interaction not only between playwrights but also interaction between playwrights and directors, designers, actors, and other artists in the creation of work. We are interested in bringing together a conference populated primarily by playwrights but one that recognises in its composition that many of our playwrights work across these practices. Therefore we are also interested in expressions of interest from playwrights with professional experience as directors, designers and actors who might be interested in combining attendance with working at the conference.
We encourage you to see the conference as an opportunity to test out your work and experiment. We aim to provide A supported space where you can fly some balloons if you want to - explore your theatrical world - without the pressure of product success or failure. A conference that allows focus on 'playing' and 'wright-ing'. In this regard we're interested to hear from you as part of your application or expression of interest the sort of people you'd like to work with.
To discuss your application, apply, or submit your ideas please email scripts@playmarket.org.nz, phone 04 282 8462 or mail PO Box 9767 Te Aro, Wellington. We're looking forward to talking to many of you over the next two months.
The deadline for applications is Friday April 28th - early applications much welcomed - to scripts@playmarket.org.nz or PO Box 9767 Te Aro Wellington. Attn: Script Development. They should be accompanied by details of what project you would like to work on at APC06. Decisions and offers of places will be decided as soon as possible thereafter.
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63.77
PICKING AT PATAKA
Hailed as the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar, Italian- born Antonio Forcione pushes the boundaries of modern guitar playing with a fusion of jazz, Spanish, African and Brazilian style. His 13 albums have hit the top of the UK and international jazz charts, and he is considered one of the most charismatic and inventive performers to come out of Europe in recent years. Not content to excel only in straight music, he also explores the realm of music comedy. "Miss him at your peril." (The Stage)
WHEN: Fri 3 Mar, 7.30pm WHERE: PATAKA, Porirua PRICE: $30.00 GA
http://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=FORCIONE
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63.78
THE ARTS OFFICE SAN ANTONIO
http://www.sanantonio.gov/art/website/
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63.79
SNAPPING AT PATAKA
Contemporary New Zealand Photographers is a new exhibition and accompanying book celebrating 20 of this country's greatest photographers. The artists range from senior practitioners including Marti Friedlander, Anne Noble, Laurence Aberhart and Peter Peryer, mid-career photographers such as Gavin Hipkins and Fiona Pardington, through to young and emerging artists such as Ben Cauchi, Yvonne Todd and Edith Amituanai.
Today art photography in New Zealand is widely taught, collected, exhibited and discussed. At its cutting edge, this art form makes a strong contribution to New Zealand's active engagement with the international art world. Interest in photography has grown rapidly over the past decade in New Zealand, with many more collectors and practitioners entering the market. This exhibition, and accompanying book, offers New Zealanders and the rest of the world a glimpse of this controversial and ever-changing art form.
http://www.pataka.org.nz/home.aspx?ID=100029834
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63.80
CHILDREN TAKE NOTE
Improve your child's creative and artistic skills?
Boost their self esteem through positive achievements?
Achieve good results whilst having fun?
Then "Kids n' Art" is the place to be.
Highly qualified primary school teacher offers after school art and active drama classes where the aim is to have fun, use fantasy, learn and improve existing skills in a social, positive and happy environment.
Art classes:
Explore art and art history in a fun, relaxed and educational way. The interactive activities could include:
Painting: learn about colours using acrylic and/or water colours in theme based paintings.
Making collages: create and design your own idol poster and learn decoupage.
Architecture: Make your own house inspired by Gaudí using your fantasy and creativity.
Drawing: learn how to draw people and animals in an impressionist and expressionist way. Make your own cartoon and do fun drawing exercises.
Active drama:
Learn to cooperate, build confidence, concentrate and act in an entertaining way! Using active drama activities combined with fun games. The classes include various amusing drama exercises where mind, fantasy, creativity and body will be involved and activated!
Where: Wellington Arts Centre, 61 Abel Smith St,Wellington.
Ground level.
What to bring: Clothes that can get dirty
Contact details: Karen Carey. Cell phone: 0212153760 or home: 045284301
Cost: $25 per casual 2 hour session
$21 per session for 8 x 2 hour sessions
Incl. materials, a little snack and a drink
Timetable: Classes start every day at 3.30pm and finish at 5.30pm
Monday: Art aged, 6-8 years
Tuesday: Art aged, 6-8 years
Wednesday: Art, aged 9-10 years
Thursday: Drama, aged 6-8 years
Friday: Drama, aged 9-10 years
Max. 12 children pr. class, so be quick!
Term 1 2006 Classes start Feb 20th - Book Now
Contact Information:
If you are interested in my program or have any questions please feel free to call me on 0212153760
Term 1 2006 Classes start Feb 20th - Book Now
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63.81
FUNKY FRABICS WORKSHOP
Stella Robertson
FUNKY FABRICS
2 day workshop. Saturday 22nd and Saturday 29th of April
10am till 4pm, $150
Learn to use a variety of craft materials to funk up existing items of clothing or soft furnishings with contemporary decorative techniques. An introduction to fabric choices and colour will lead to directed experimentation with simple hands-on processes. Needle and thread experience not essential. Step by step instructions are given by an experienced art and design tutor. Some materials provided, call to discuss.
Sign up now: 021 0234 6834
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63.82
WELL COLLECTED
Cezanne to Picasso: Paintings from the Julian and Josie Robertson Collection, New York
Te Papa
28 February - 29 March
Level 4. Free entry.
The forthcoming visit of New York art collectors Julian and Josie Robertson to their New Zealand home in Hawke's Bay brings Te Papa visitors an opportunity to experience a remarkable selection of works by some of the masters of modern art.
The fourteen works to be displayed are representative of many of the major phases of modern painting between 1875 and 1950, in effect documenting the movement of art from impressionism to abstraction. They also illustrate the role of Paris as a powerhouse of modern art movements, as nearly all the artists were active in Paris at some stage during their working lives.
There are some exceptional individual works, such as those by Braque, Nolde, Redon, and Fantin-Latour. The Fauves make their presence felt in a particularly impressive group. But the great attraction of the selection is that it is a sampling of excellent and typical works by some of the most famous painters in the history of modern art. The works also range across genres - landscape, still life, nude, and marine.
Visitors will be struck by the vibrancy of the palettes and the vitality of the treatments. Together the works offer a conversation of harmonies and resonances, as well as dissonances - indicative of the ferment of ideas that permeated the art world of Paris during the time of their creation.
The Robertsons' art collection is part of the fabric of their lives at their home in New York. Their strong connection with New Zealand has occasioned the generous gesture of bringing a selection during their stay here so that they can share the experience of their art with people
http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/TePapa/English/WhatsOn/ComingSoon/Cezanne2Picasso.htm
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63.83
FILM CALL
Call for entries to the BELLADONNA Canterbury Short Film Festival 2006
The Belladonna Film Trust is now calling entries to its 2006 annual short film festival. It will be holding its annual Christchurch short film festival in June this year at the Philip Carter Family Auditorium of the Christchurch Art Gallery. The deadline for entries is 21 April.
If you have a work you wish to submit, then please download our entry form from the website and submit your film before 21 April.
All films must be the work of a New Zealand citizen or resident as the Festival focuses on local not international works.
The festival is now in its fifth year. Each year the festival showcases a variety of works ranging from documentaries, media art and experimentals to narrative dramas and dance films. Seminars will also be offered as a part of the programme, exploring topics related to film-making and cinema appreciation.
For more information, phone (03) 365 6151, email festival06@belladonna.org.nz or visit the website.
http://www.belladonna.org.nz/
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63.84
AND THE NEXT STEP
Footnote Dance
Perforum 2006: An experiment in the evolution of Dance
125 Cuba Street
Thursday 23rd February
Ph. 384 7285
Koha entry
footnote@footnote.org.nz
Footnote Dance is unique as a repertoire company with a commitment to new New Zealand dance.
Perforum 2006 is a concept developed for 'FRINGENZ' to facilitate discussion with the creative forces of contemporary dance. New choreography by internationally renowned Jeremy Nelson will form the beginnings of new dance for Perforum 2006.
Perforum 2006 will include a showing of works in progress alongside a discussion forum facilitated by Deirdre Tarrant, Director of Footnote Dance. This is a unique opportunity for the public to share in, and perhaps actively influence, the creation of professional contemporary dance. Perforum has been a very popular dance initiative at the last three FringeNZ.
Footnote dancers Halina Wolyncewicz, Hannah Stannard, Anita Hunziker, Sarah Knox, Lance Riley and Andrew Rusk bring their skills and energy to the creative process of these new dance works.
These works will ultimately be part of the repertoire for the season of "Feats of Fancy", our coming-of-age programme celebrating new New Zealand dance and music, which will tour nationally later in the year.
Dance never stands still and Perforum is an experiment in its evolution - making a dialogue with dance - Jeremy Nelson
Jeremy Nelson who receieved a GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIP for 2004, was born in New Zealand, trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance and went on to dance for Siobhan Davies and Second Stride Dance companies in London before moving to New York in 1984. He was a dancer with the Stephen Petronio Dance Company in New York from 1984-1992, returning as guest soloist in 1995. In 1991 he won a New York Dance and Performance (Bessies) Award for outstanding performance with that company.
He has been presenting his choreography in New York since 1994 at venues such as Danspace Project at St Mark's Church, Dance Theater Workshop and PS 122, as well as in several countries including Footnote Dance Company in 1998 and Phoenix Dance Theatre in Leeds, England in 2003.
He is a member of the teaching faculty at Movement Research in New York and a guest artist in 2004 at Connecticut College. In the United States, he has taught as part of the American Dance Festival, and at various universities including New York University Tisch School of the Arts and Bennington College. He has been invited to give classes to several internationally recognised companies including Anna Terese de Keersmaaker's ROSAS in Brussels, Sasha Waltz Company in Berlin, and Siobhan Davies Company in London.
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63.85
THE WRIGHT DANCE
Black Milk
by Douglas Wright Dance
Black Milk is an exploration of the boundaries of love, fear and memory by acclaimed choreographer Douglas Wright. Passionate physicality, teasing mystery and earthy black humour are combined to spectacular effect.
The first major new work from iconic choreographer Douglas Wright since 2002, Black Milk showcases the awe-inspiring talents of some of New Zealand's leading contemporary dancers: Craig Bary, Sarah-Jayne Howard, and Clare O'Neil (all return from successful international careers to perform), Helaina Keeley, Tai Royal, Alex Leonhartsberger, and Jessica Shipman.
The premiere of Black Milk will be accompanied by the release of Douglas Wright's new book - Terra Incognito (Penguin Books NZ). Signings at all venues.
Important: Advance booking offer: 10% off all A-reserve seats until 10th February 2006.
Black Milk 2006 Performances:
Invercargill - Civic Theatre - 25 March
Dunedin - Regent Theatre - 28 March
Christchurch - James Hay Theatre - 31 March
Auckland Sky City Theatre 5-8 April
Wellington - Opera House 12-13 April
Book at www.ticketek.co.nz (for Invercargill at www.ticketdirect.co.nz)
For more information about Black Milk:
www.douglaswright.net
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63.86
MOVING THE LITTLE ONES
Musical fun for pre-school
children and babies at the
Wellington Arts Centre, 65 Abel Smith Street,
Wellington.
10:00 am Musical fun for preschool children aged 2-4 years
10:45 am Musical tots & babies aged 18 months - 2 years
11:30 am Musical babies for babies aged 6-18 months
Classes start Thursday 16 February 2006. Fees are $58.50 for nine sessions. Registrations are open for term one 2006. Email jumpnjive@paradise.net.nz or phone Sarah ph 976 2754. Class sizes are limited and registration is essential. Look forward to seeing you
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63.87
UPCOMING, DOWNSTAGE
The Downstage Theatre 2006 season brochure has hit the streets, and includes details of upcoming productions. Don't miss Mart Crowley's famous exploration of mankind, The Boys in the Band, when the Silo Theatre production opens on 27 January. King and Country follows on 24 February, with a look at New Zealand stories during WWII developed and directed by Dave Armstrong and Conrad Newport. Aboriginal actor David Page brings his extraordinary life and family to the stage in Page 8 (co-written by Louis Nowra) from 8 to 12 March. There's much more, including Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, the 2006 Comedy Season, Greg Cooper's No Moa, and even a special offer for play-goers under 30. Pick up the neatly-designed brochure today, or check the website
www.downstage.co.nz
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63.88
GOOD FORM
Pilates have begin at Wellington Arts Centre, with sessions on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 6:30pm. Qualified tutor Katie Haines is a former Royal NZ Ballet dancer, and has certified pilates certificates from Oxford/Cambridge and Pilates Institute London. Flatten those abs. Strengthen that spine. Tone and stretch. Improve posture and breathing. Sessions are $10 per lesson, for a term, or $15 for casual attendance. Sessions are also available in Brooklyn, Karori, and Newlands. Contact Katie on 476-3771 to begin Piilates today.
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63.89
GOOD SHOW
Hi all
The 2006 NZ Affordable Art Show is well underway. Registrations have now opened for artists....
3rd NZ Affordable Art Show
3 - 6 August 2006
Our vision for the show is to see New Zealanders buy New Zealand art. To make this possible we need visual artists from all corners of the country. We need you.
You are invited to display and sell your art at the 3rd annual New Zealand Affordable Art Show. With over 7000 people attending the event in 2005, and more expected this year, it will be a great way to gain exposure and connect with patrons, collectors and first-time buyers.
All mediums are welcome to be exhibited and sold (with a few conditions of course). Registration closes 1 May, so check the website for details. Don't miss out!
Download a registration form from our website
www.affordableart.co.nz
or have one sent to you by calling 04 472 7652.
Carla Russell
Executive Director
NZ Affordable Art Trust
PO Box 11679, Wellington
027 244 8090 (04) 472 7652
carla@affordableart.co.nz
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63.90
STAB 2006
2006 is the eleventh year of the STAB Commission and Season at BATS Theatre.
Creative New Zealand funds BATS to commission 2-3 boundary-shattering performance works every year from some of the country’s most exciting creative minds. So here’s your opportunity to dream up a cutting edge performance experience. Pitch your vision to BATS, and potentially be commissioned to turn it into a startling reality.
The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 17 March.
Contact BATS Theatre for more information.
1 Kent Terrace, Wellington;
(04) 802 4176 or bats@bats.co.nz)
BATS THEATRE
1 Kent Tce
Wellington
Aotearoa-New Zealand
bookings 04 802 4175
office 04 802 4176
fax 04 802 4010
www.bats.co.nz
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63.91
UNPLUGGED WORKSHOPS
Acoustic Routes (in association with Wellington City Council Creative Communities NZ) are offering a series of performance workshops aimed at helping people gain confidence and skills to perform in public - solo or in groups. The workshops are led by experienced musicians and performers who love sharing their skills and experience.
The Workshops will be held on Saturday afternoons at the Wellingotn Arts Centre on Abel Smith St. The sessions will start at 1.30pm and will run for around 2 hours plus a break.The cost will be $20 including workshop material prepared by the presenters for you to take away (and free coffee and biscuits).
The remaining 2006 programme is:
25 Feb 06 Arranging for groups - Ang Kidd
4 Mar 06 Chord structures and progressions - Bernard Wells
(for all rhythm players - not just guitar)
A flyer with more detail and a registration form can be found on our web site - www.acousticroutes.org.nz or from any Acoustic Routes committee member.
Regards
Gerard Hudson
President - Acoustic Routes
gerard.hudson@xtra.co.nz
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63.92
ARTS CENTRE GALLERY
Exhibitions upcoming at Wellington Arts Centre gallery space...
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/artscentre/gallery.html
And look out for an expanded exhibition space, coming in April 2006!
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63.93
REHEARSAL SPACE
Wellington Arts Centre has rehearsal space now available for theatrical troupes, musicians, small dance groups, and other creative disciplines. The three sound-proofed music spaces have just been completed and are ready for bookings by bands, instructors, and musical projects. Hourly cost is $6-15, depending on room and time of day. Other rehearsal rooms include several spaces for theatre and stage work, beginning at $12.50/hour. Enquiries and bookings can be made by stopping by 61 Abel Smith Street, calling 385-1929, or emailing arts@wcc.govt.nz
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63.94
THE NO.8 WIRE: PAST AND PRESENT
Archives of the No. 8 Wire are on-line at
www.arts.blogspot.com
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63.95
CONTACT THE NO.8 WIRE
To be removed from this email list...
To be added...
To submit contents, events, opportunities, or comments to contribute to...
Please send word to arts@wcc.govt.nz
Furthermore, send comments, questions, requests, etc to
Eric Vaughn Holowacz
Wellington Arts Centre
61-69 Abel Smith Street
Wellington, New Zealand
Arts@wcc.govt.nz
04-385-1929
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posted by Cultural Engineer @ 5:21 pm
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