The No.8 Wire - Issue 69
Gondwanaland Ministry of Culture
Artists' Information Bureau
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An Electronic Alert for 1271 of Wellington's Creative People
ENDNOTE 1: Remarks at the WCC Maori Community Hui
ENDNOTE 2: Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth
To submit your news, project details, call for participation, or cultural item of any sort, please send your description/text as email to arts@wcc.govt.nz
The No. 8 Wire is compiled, assembled and issued by Eric Holowacz, Arts Programmes & Services Manager, Wellington City Council (just in case anybody is asking)
If you have received more than one edition of this No 8 Wire, or this email message is entirely unwanted, please reply and let me know. I will promptly instruct our assistant customer service representative to accommodate your request, your change of address, or your removal from this distribution list.
Thanks for reading the below...and for making culture happen around us...
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69.00
BEGINNING A CONVERSATION
Opening Notes
for Wellington's Next Generation
What is the sound of Wellington's culture? Which songs, popular or obscure, are defining the 21st century identity of New Zealand? If our city were a film, what would be its soundtrack?
Opening Notes, a unique partnership between Wellington City Council's Arts Programmes & Services office and Wellington Saatchi & Saatchi, seeks to answer these questions. It will be phrased in the form of an annual CD compilation given free to every baby born in the region. Every family of a new Wellingtonian will go home with a carefully designed package meant to celebrate the robust character, creative lives, and burgeoning music communities in New Zealand's capital city.
Over 6,000 new babies arrive in Wellington Region each year. The Opening Notes package and disc, delivered through a partnership with the District Health Boards, will be both a unique welcoming gesture and a legacy for the next generation. The mission of Opening Notes is simple: to give parents and new arrivals something important to listen to, to explore, and to return to in years to come. We want no less than to offer them the sounds of Wellington's culture.
The Opening Notes project is being driven by Eric Holowacz, Arts Programmes & Services Manager for Wellington City Council, and Jonathan Russell, General Manager of Saatchi & Saatchi. Their innovative partnership has depended on the expertise, input, and hard work of dozens of others - from Blink and A Low Hum to SOUNZ: the Centre for New Zealand Music to local record labels and musicologists. We all hope you'll join us in welcoming the opening notes of Wellington's next great soundtrack.
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69.01
OPENING NOTES
Project Overview
This cultural initiative involves providing a specially-produced compilation audio CD of Wellington-based music free to every new baby (and parents) born in Wellington Region from late June 2006 on. The project was developed between 2002-2006, by the arts officer at Wellington City Council, Eric Holowacz. He was inspired by the growing profile of local music-makers, by the dedicated work of nurses and midwives and those who help us come up in the world, and by the emerging New Zealand culture that will be forged by the next generation of Wellingtonians.
The project was without funding and the necessary momentum until tried-and-true Wellingtonian Jonathan Russell, known to all as "JR," saw the good in Opening Notes. In the spring of 2005 his agency, Wellington's Saatchi & Saatchi, became sole sponsor and a driving force behind the implementation of this cultural initiative.
The inaugural Opening Notes CD is in the final stages of production, with an expected launch on 1 July. It opens with musicologist Richard Nunns performing the three note Maori flute, or pumotumotu. This instrument has been used ritually by Maori, and played directly into the head of newborn babies - as a way of transferring cultural essence and orientation. It was a way to use sounds to connect the new person to his or her iwi, family, village, world. This short opening recording is haunting, powerful, and a fitting metaphor for this project.
The following tracks include "He Mihi" sung by Paekakariki poet and songstress, Hinemoana Baker and The Phoenix Foundation's unimpeachable hit "This Charming Van"; Then there are tracks by local favourites Ghostplane and Over the Atlantic, gypsy folk group Carousel, and blues/jug-band stalwarts The Windy City Strugglers. Kashmiri singer Kiran Aswani offers a track from the recent Close Your Eyes ethnic lullaby CD, and Iraqi singer Homeh contributes a traditional chant of love. New Zealand Symphony Orchestra violinist Elena performs her intimate "Elena's Elegant Violin" and Wellington East Girls College Choir offers an extraordinary Samoan song, "Tofa mai feleni." There are further tracks by Verona, Mike Fabulous, and the Fly My Pretties ballad, "Singing in my Soul." The first compilation comes to a close with new music from Wellington composer Jack Body, Lullaby 1 and 2 from "Rainforest," performed specially for Opening Notes by Bridget Douglas (flute) and Carolyn Mills (harp).
Researching and planning the Opening Notes Project has involved SOUNZ the Centre for New Zealand Music, Wellington-based record labels, the Wellington International Jazz Festival, University programmes and local musicologists, and a crowd of local music lovers. Significant early support was provided by recording engineer Robbie Duncan and his Braeburn Studio, as well as the good people of Loop Recordings. Local graphic design agency Frontloader and principal Viv Bernard also contributed significant ideas and enthusiasm to Opening Notes. And New Zealand's legendary music promoter and organiser, Blink, energised the latter stages of development by joining the production team as an Opening Notes principal.
But the project really took shape when Wellington's Saatchi & Saatchi, and it's Wellington-born general manager, Jonathan Russell, became the major partner and supporter in late 2005. The ensuing months have seen Opening Notes take shape as our gift to the future generation of Wellington, and our gesture of support for what they will one day contribute to our shared culture. The entire team at Saatchi, suits and creative, poured their ideas, thoughts, words, and images into the final package. A better community of partners simply does not exist.
Wellington and Hutt Valley hospitals and District Health Boards have become the other integral partners for Opening Notes. These handle an estimated 6,000 births each year, and serve communities and parents from all regions of the lower North Island (from Kapiti to Upper Hutt to Breaker Bay). Thanks to Margot Mains, Chief Executive Officer of Wellington Hospital/Capital Coast District Health Board, and her executive team (as well as the Maternity Services at Hutt Valley DHB) Opening Notes will be provided to every new Wellingtonian.
There are no commercial aspects to this project, and absolutely no income through sales of any kind. Contributing artists have retained all rights, ownership, publishing and every other use of their music.
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69.02
OPENING NOTES
Reflecting our culture
The Opening Notes CD has several objectives in mind. On the surface there is a five-part mission:
to foster a wider appreciation of Wellington's local music scene
to support and provide new exposure for local musicians
to re-affirm Wellington's identity as a creative, musical city
to encourage a sense of community and tradition among parents and families in Wellington Region, and
to get people thinking about cultural identity and relationships
A new Opening Notes compilation will be produced annually, making the tracks specific to the year of birth and an heirloom from that special time. The compiled music will be intended for the baby as well as the parents and extended support group. But more importantly, the tracks are meant to fill not just the early years of the child. We hope that the tracks will be listening to throughout his or her life - from school days and teen years to university and early career to beyond the time when his/her generation gives way to the next.
Opening Notes is meant to be a life-long connection between a person and his/her culture. And that, really, is mission of this project.
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69.03
OPENING NOTES
The Music
Our most profound thanks go to the musicians and artists who have made Opening Notes possible. They are the ones who are playing our culture, performing its essences, delivering the real meaning behind Opening Notes. The first compilation will feature these wonderful tracks...
1. Richard Nunns / Pomotomoto
Performed/arranged by: Richard Nunns
Producer: Robbie Duncan
Recorded specially for Opening Notes at Braeburn Studio, Old Hutt Road, Wellington
2. Hinemoana Baker / He Mihi
Written/arranged by: Hinemoana Baker
From: "Puawai" Jayrem Records, Aotearoa
http://www.hinemoana.co.nz/
3. The Phoenix Foundation / This Charming Van
Written/arranged by: The Phoenix Foundation
From: "Horsepower" Capital Recordings, Wellington
http://www.thephoenixfoundation.co.nz
4. Kiran Aswani / Wol Nall Rathath
Traditional Kashmiri Lullaby
Arranged/performed by Plan 9: David Donaldson, Steve Roche, Janet Roddick Produced by Christine Argyle
From: "Close Your Eyes - Ethnic Lullabies from Around the World"
http://www.esolht.org.nz/
5. Carousel / Conversations in the Park
Written by Peter Mrkusich and Eli Mrkusich
From: "Carousel"
http://www.carousel.gen.nz
6. Mike Fabulous and The Jamboree Sound / Whopper Chopper Seaside Extravaganza in Dub
Written/arranged by: Mike Fabulous
Produced by Barnaby Weir and Lee Prebble
From: "Capitalbase 1" Capital Recordings, Wellington
http://www.capitalrecordings.co.nz/releases/capitalbase_1
7. Wellington East Girls College Small Choir / Tofa mai Feleni
Traditional Samoan song, arranged by: Rosie Salas
Produced by New Zealand Choral Federation and Concert FM
From: "New Zealand Choral Federation Big Sing 2002"
http://www.wegc.school.nz/
8. Fly My Pretties / Singing in My Soul
Written by: Age Pryor and Hamish Guerrini (1998)
Produced by: Lee Prebble and Barnaby Weir
From: "Fly My Pretties - Live at BATS" LOOP Recordings, Aot(ear)oa http://www.loop.co.nz/2005/releases/lp024.php
9. Windy City Strugglers / Waltz of the Wind Written/arranged by:
Produced by: Nick Bollinger
From: "Kingfisher" Red Rocks Records/Global Routes
http://www.windycitystrugglers.co.nz/
10. Verona / Good Morning
Written by: Dan Adams
Produced by: Verona
From: "One"
11. Ghostplane / Wash of Gold
From: Beneath the Sleepy Lagoon
http://www.ghostplane.com/
12. Olmecha Supreme / Game Over Instrumental
Written, produced, and performed by: Ahmen Mahal
From: "Hedfoneresonance"
http://www.olmecha.com/
13. Vector Wellington Orchestra / Canzona 3 by Douglas Lilburn
Conducted by Kenneth Young
Written by: Douglas Lilburn
Produced by: Roger Lloyd and Vector Wellington Orchestra
From: "Celebrate Wellington" recorded live for the 100th anniversary of Wellington Town Hall
http://www.wellingtonorchestra.co.nz/
14. Homeh Lazar / Baset shaprkh (Mawal)
Written/arranged by: Homeh Lazar
Produced by: Robbie Duncan at Braeburn Studio
http://www.qeenatha.com/?act=singerDetails&artist=15
15. Rhombus / Soljare
Unreleased re-mix by Rhian Sheehan
Written by: Rhombus
Produced by: Rhombus
www.rhombus.co.nz
16. Elena / Elegant Violin
Written by: Steffen Goeres
Produced by: Elena
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/elenaviolinist/
17. Over the Atlantic / Heartland
Written and produced by Bevan Smith and Nik Brinkman
Copyright: Involve records
From "Junica"
www.involverecords.com
www.carparkrecords.com
18. Oliver Mtukudzi, Whirimako Black, and Jonathan Besser / Une Chikinzero
With Caitlin Smith, James Pinker, Peter Scott, Steve garden, and Justin Kereama Written by: Mtukudzi, Black, and Besser
Recorded by Steve Garden Produced by: Jonathan Besser and Bushcraft Ltd
From: "Lands of Our Fathers - My African Legacy" Soundtrack, a film by Jennifer Bush-Daumec
http://www.bushcraft.co.nz/lands
19. Charmaine Ford / Lullaby for Dillon
Composed, Arranged and Produced by Charmaine Ford
Co-produced by Justin Hooper
From: "Blues for Guppy" Ford Motion Records
www.charmaineford.com
20. Ryan Prebble / Like a Flash
Composed by: Ryan Prebble
Produced by: Ryan Prebble and "Dr" Lee Prebble
From: "Fruits" Scue Records
21 & 22. Lullaby 1 & 2 from "Rainforest"
Bridget Douglas, flute
Carolyn Mills, harp
Written by: Jack Body
Produced by: Roy Carr
Commissioned by Bridget Douglas, Carolyn Mills, with support from Creative New Zealand
Recorded specially for Opening Notes
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69.04
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO A LOW HUM
An Update from Blink
Hello all. Here is a crazy digest thing of what's going on.
TOUR
The latest A LOW HUM tour starts TODAY in Hamilton. The Sneaks, Shaky Hands and Thought Creature.
Go to www.alowhum.com
TOUR FILMS
The short 12 minute tour doco's from the first two A LOW HUM tours are now online.
ALH Tour #1
ALH Tour #2
Click on the links above or go to www.alowhum.com
CAMP A LOW HUM
Registrations for CAMP A LOW HUM are coming thick and fast. Almost 1/5 of all available tickets have been pre-registered for. If you are interested in finding out more about CAMP A LOW HUM, send an email to: campingiscool@alowhum.com and I'll put you on the list.
CRAFTWERK
A LOW HUM is sponsoring the awesomely rad Craftwerk. The handmade craft event is being held at Paramount theatre on July 13th from 5:30pm and will feature bands, heaps of crazy amazing crafts, lots of band merch, and a fantastic good time. To find out more check out www.craftwerk.co.nz
A LOW HUM Shop.
A Low Hum is now started selling stuff through trademe.co.nz . It's going well, if you've got a tradme account...go now and start buying up large. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listings.aspx?member=1567250
If you don't have a trademe account, just work out what things you want from the listings and then email my wonderful girlfriend on alhshop@gmail.com . She is taking care of online orders and is the reason people are getting them ontime and well packaged.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
The free downloadable PDF of local knowledge will finally be online as of mid next week. There are a few changes and amendments from the version of issue 1 that was released in May.
JULY BREAK
In July I am taking a month off from touring... though I won't be getting a sweet holiday. I'll be ironing out all the details of CAMP A LOW HUM, working on the next issue of Local Knowledge and also preparing for the behemoth of a tour I have lined up in August which features something like 20 shows in 15 days.
NEW WEBSITE
A new website is being worked on that actually looks good. Hopefully this will be launched in time for the August tour.
Enjoy this awesome Winter weather and please come to my June tour its gonna be one hell ova party.
Cheers
Blink
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69.05
MONEY UPDATE
A word from the WCC grants office
Good morning
Applications are now open for the Council's July grant round. Applications close at 5pm on 31 July 2006. This is the first round of general grants under our new grants framework - applications can be made to any of our four grant pools (Social, Cultural, Economic and Environmental). There will be two further general grant rounds in the 2006/07 financial year - closing at the end of November 2006 and March 2007.
An overview
www.Wellington.govt.nz/services/grants
There is also a page explaining recent changes to the grants framework. There is one application form covering all grants that can be downloaded from the website. There is also a new project description template which we would like all applicants to use - this is a word document that can be downloaded and used electronically. The application guide gives an overview of grants criteria and how to apply.
Advice seminars to explain the new grants framework and how to apply will be held on 28 June from 1-3pm and 6-8pm, 10 July 1-3pm and 12 July 1-3pm and 6-8pm. To book a place in a seminar please fill in the form on the website
Please feel free to pass this around your networks. You have received this because you are on one of my mailing lists for WCC grant rounds or work for WCC. 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
katharine.macann@wcc.govt.nz
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69.06
CAMEO AT PARAMOUNT
Making the most of the Casting Couch...
NZ Actors Equity, Wellington is chatting up, arguably this country's finest casting director, Diana Rowan, in this month's Cameo @ Paramount.
Cameo @ Paramount, in association with The Bolton Hotel and Wellington City Council, is an initiative started by NZ Actor's Equity as a collaboration between the actor's union and Paramount to encourage, inform and inspire particularly Wellington performers along with other creative professionals by interviewing leading New Zealand actors, directors and casting directors.
Diana Rowan was 2004's Industry Champion of every possible industry award and she joins us on Tuesday 27th June in an intimate discussion to talk about the casting process, performance in general, setting out on a new path as a feature film director and leading Women In Film & Television, Auckland to new and greater heights.
Her film credits as a casting director include such luminous films as The Piano, Whale Rider, In My Father's Den, The World's Fastest Indian, Number 2, Hercules & Xena, Vertical Limit, The Navigator, and Rain. And has discovered many of our leading national and international actors Anna Pacquin, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Lucy Lawless, Emily Barclay, Cliff Curtis and Temuera Morrison.
The interview, followed by an audience Q & A begins at 6pm Tuesday 27th June at The Bergman Theatre, Paramount. Tickets are available at Paramount for $10 for Equity or Industry Guild card holders and $20 for general public.
For further information please contact Barbara Woods on (027) 548 7053 or msbarbarella@hotmail.com
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69.07
MAGICAL IMAGES
El Nino Magico, new work by Stephen Templer
El Nino Magico is an adventure with strong figurative hooks to take the imagination of the viewer on a personal voyage of discovery through old world mysticism and early nautical expeditions. Mexican influences are intertwined with Victorian style diorama as Stephen brings to life tails of dangerous adventures on the high sea.
The blending of influences imparts a dark, yet kitsch charm and leaves the viewer pondering possible flights of fancy. Interactive mechanical diorama enable the viewer to predict their fortune. Drop anchor or set sail?
This Mechanical Box art is reminiscent of old world Arcade games before space invaders, but with a new twist.
Stephen Templer is a Wellington based artist and illustrator with a background in graphic design. The strong imaginative narrative in his work stems from his work illustrating children's books. His work on the 1930s style signage for the King Kong movie also influence this exhibition. Stephen's interest in the Victorian era's fascination of the macabre and freakish is blended with Mexican Day of the Dead influences developing a strong symbolic language as a platform for his work.
El Nino Magico
19th -June 1st July
Deluxe Cafe Wellington
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69.08
PHOTOSPACE UPDATE
Hi from James at Photospace gallery
You are invited to the opening of two new exhibitions at Photospace gallery:
Roland Idaczyk - Arbores
and
Jodi Ruth Keet - Shadow & Light
The exhibitions opened on Thursday 15th June, and run until July 10th.
http://www.photospace.co.nz/expo106.htm
And let me get in a plug for Grasslands Convention, who're playing at The Adelaide, 114 Adelaide Rd, Newtown on Saturday 24th June from 9.30pm. See
http://www.photospace.co.nz/grasslands_convention.htm
Thanx,
James
James Gilberd
Photospace studio/gallery
1st floor, 37 Courtenay Place
Wellington, New Zealand
(postal address: as above)
ph/fax: 64-4-382 9502
cell: 027 444 3899
Gallery hours: 10-4.30 Monday-Friday
11-3 Saturdays, closed public holidays
http://www.photospace.co.nz
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69.09
COMMUNITY MUSIC JUNCTION
Choral workshop Programme:
SONGS FROM THE BALKANS
A one-day choral workshop
for people of all ages
and experience
Saturday 24th June
Newtown Community Centre
The Balkan (eastern European) region includes Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Bulgaria. Balkan music is distinguished by its complex, but very catchy dance rhythms, often in 7/8 or 11/8 and this, together with the preponderance of improvised vocal ornamentation connects this music with Turkish, Greek and North African cultures. Balkan singing has an open-voiced, vibrant quality, with the textures often in 2 or 3 parts, while pedal effects and clashing harmonies complete a sound-world that is distinctive and gloriously life-affirming.
Led by Julian Raphael
The workshop will run between 10 am and 4 pm.
At the Newtown Community Centre (Corner of Colombo and Rintoul Sts)
Fee: $20 ($15 unwaged) for the day
For more information or to reserve a place contact
Julian Raphael 021 0767570 email: communitymusic@xtra.co.nz
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69.10
HISTORICAL TURNBULL MAPS NOW ONLINE
The Alexander Turnbull Library has linked some 240 images of historical New Zealand maps from its collections to the National Library Catalogue
http://nlnzcat.natlib.govt.nz
The maps and charts, dated from 1587 to the 1980s, are mostly of the Pacific and New Zealand and cover many subjects, including land wars, land ownership, settlement and exploration. Through ongoing digitisation programs and projects, the collection will grow over time and provide improved access to the Turnbull's 60,000 plus map collection.
The online maps are available in low-resolution JPEG files at this stage. The Library is working towards providing access to higher-resolution images online in the future. All map images can be purchased at high resolution and can be provided on CD or DVD.
To access a map, follow these steps: Log on to the National Library Catalogue (_HYPERLINK http://nlnzcat.natlib.govt.nz __http://nlnzcat.natlib.govt.nz_ or click on Search catalogues and databases on the National Library website (_HYPERLINK www.natlib.govt.nz __www.natlib.govt.nz_). Put the words MapColl digital in the search box. Scroll down to Call number (begins with) in the box marked 'Using'. Click the Search button. This will bring up all the map records. Click on a record, go to the bottom of the page and click on Link to digital copy. This will bring up a picture of the map.
Images of unpublished maps are available on Timeframes
http://timeframes.natlib.govt.nz
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69.11
TLC ART AVALANCHE
It's winter, folks, which means ...it's time for our half year exhibition, the End of Term Student Art Exhibition @ The Learning Connexion! This is your personal invitation to come along and see how hard our talented students have worked.
Our exhibition opens on Thursday 22 June 2006 at 7.30pm with final entry at 9.30pm (don't worry, the heaters will indeed be ON!), and we'll also have some laidback and funky live music from (a slightly altered) Joe Callwood Trio.
The exhibition remains open Friday 23, Saturday 24, and Sunday 27 June, from 10.00am to 4.00pm.
Quite a few fabulous artworks will be on display, including paintings, drawings, pastels, sculpture, ceramics, photography, print, computer graphics, videography, and design ... These innovative works from up-and-coming as well as established artists reflect their passion for art and life, with an emphasis on creativity and thinking beyond the usual thoughts.
You're most welcome to bring your friends, family, workmates, neighbours, and stalkers ... you will walk away from our exhibition stunned and amazed!
We hope to see you! (You will find us at 31 Avon Street, Island Bay, Wellington.)
Debbie McGuire
PA to the Managing Director
The Learning Connexion
d.mcguire@tlc.ac.nz
DDI: +64 4 3834325
www.tlc.ac.nz
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69.12
MUSIC NOTE
Big honour for versatile Wellington composer
05 June 2006
By CHRIS ORMOND
Wellington composer Gareth Farr says he was pleasantly surprised and a bit miffed to learn a Queen's Birthday honour was on his way.
Farr was appointed Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to music and entertainment as part of this year's Queen's Birthday honours, and at only 38, said he wasn't initially sure of its significance.
"To be honest, I know so little about it because I never thought that I would have to know anything about it," he said yesterday.
"It's weird, because I'm not a politician or a High Court judge and I don't save lives, I just write music. But on the other hand, it's a really great reaffirmation of the fact that music is not just a luxury.
"It's actually a really important part of life and to have New Zealand reaffirm that for me and say that I am actually doing something important is really wonderful."
Farr studied composition, orchestration and electronic music at Auckland University, followed by further study at Victoria University in Wellington, and played frequently as a percussionist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
He later graduated from the Eastman School of Music in New York a Master of Music.
At the age of 25 he became Chamber Music New Zealand's youngest composer-in-residence.
Farr is also recognised in theatrical circles for his drag art, and has an alter-ego called Lileth, who has performed on stage in drag as well as in television commercials, and even has a Trentham races fashion award under her belt.
The non-drag Farr is currently working on a musical called Troy, at Wellington's Circa Theatre, and said he expected he would get either some "Dame Gareth" or "Dame Lileth" calls from his colleagues once word of his ONZM got around.
"Getting a Queen's honour, does that mean I'm going to have to start being an honourable queen," he said.
Farr said the drag part of his creative artillery was picked up while studying in the US, but he doesn't do it much these days. "I can hardly fit my bloody outfit."
His music has been used by a variety of ensembles in New Zealand and overseas and he has also written for television and film, including drama series The Strip. He said the variation was a vital in terms of keeping momentum up.
"It's something I really need. I'd get a bit stuck if it was always the same genre. I really like that sort of eclectic thing."
Read more
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3689960a13957,00.html
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69.13
MUSIC NOTE 2
Fanfare for an uncommon man
04 June 2006
A great New Zealand life has been given its due in a great biography. Chris Bourke explains why Douglas Lilburn's influence reaches well beyond his musical legacy.
Douglas Lilbirn was a man alone, and he felt it. His reputation as the "father of New Zealand composition" is now secure, but it was a lonely, courageous path he chose. He had no mentors - predecessor Alfred Hill of "Waiata Poi" fame lived mostly in Australia - and when Lilburn won his first prize, for composing a symphonic tone poem, he had never heard an orchestra perform live.
The prizes came quickly, but respect came slowly. In the 1940s, the New Zealand music establishment was unused to having a composer in its midst ("Meeting a composer then was like meeting a polar bear in Lambton Quay," said Richard Campion). Some local orchestral players were reluctant to give premiere performances; when confronted with a handwritten manuscript, one musician asked, "How do we know if it's any good?"
Eventually, Lilburn would receive every honour the country could offer - the Order of New Zealand, an honorary doctorate (though he never completed a music degree), a bronze plaque on his student flat in Christchurch, his Wellington home revitalised as a residence for visiting composers.
Before he died in 2001, Lilburn established a trust that has hugely assisted New Zealand's musical heritage.
Now composer and musicologist Philip Norman has returned the gesture. This extraordinary biography ensures that Lilburn's achievements are properly acknowledged. Scholarly yet compelling, with a rare mix of honesty and affection, it portrays the complexities of its subject.
Lilburn was intensely private, almost a hermit in his last two decades. "Biographers," he wrote, "are maggots on the meat of reputation." Yet he ensured his legacy was preserved for posterity, keeping a diary for years, getting his papers in order, creating an archive.
Norman, whose PhD thesis was on Lilburn's music, has picked over the bones thoroughly, but with fairness and flair. He has resisted being cowed by his subject, or swamped by his material.
Lilburn's isolation started early. He was born in 1915, the seventh and last child of a Scots-born farmer with large holdings near Wanganui. His upbringing was Presbyterian-staunch and lonely, but also idyllic - the 3230ha farm had four waterfalls, and Mt Ruapehu on the horizon. A Quaker primary school gave him a Thoreau-like respect for the environment and the disposition of a gentleman and scholar.
Boarding school at the other end of New Zealand - Waitaki Boys' High in Oamaru during the legendary regime of headmaster Frank Milner - was "utterly barbarous" but ultimately beneficial. Milner passed on a reverence for language, another teacher brought out his musical talents, and Lilburn credited the experience with giving him survival skills.
Canterbury University College did more than nourish the shortcomings in his musical education; it introduced him to a supportive artistic circle.
His friends became giants in New Zealand's cultural awakening - Rita Angus, Denis Glover, Allen Curnow, Ursula Bethell. Travelling to London he studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams, befriended Robin Hyde, and won more awards. "Prodigal Country" was an early prizewinner, and he returned home to become a wartime shepherd on a Taihape farm.
Read more
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3689935a4501,00.html
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69.14
ORGAN ANNIVERSARY
The Wellington Town Hall Organ turns 100 this year
Celebrate a century of music-making by attending a FREE organ recital. This is a great way to brighten up a wintry Sunday afternoon. Enjoy classic tunes played on Wellington's internationally acclaimed organ by Wellington City Organist Douglas Mews. The first concert in the 2006 Centennial Recital Series is:
Centennial Blast - Sunday 25 June 2006 3pm
Programme includes favourites such as Bach's Fantasy and Fugue in G minor, Lemare's Andantino in D flat ("Moonlight & Roses"), Rossini's Barber of Seville overture and a complimentary glass of bubbly and slice of cake...
Centennial Blast will be extra special with two large screens either side of the organ projecting photos of the organ interspersed with 'footcam' footage - there will be a live feed of the city organ in action during the recital so audience members can get a close up view of the behind the scenes actions from City Organist Douglas Mews' fancy footwork to look at the organ pipes from behind all whilst enjoying the music and the accompanying lightshow.
For more information, call the Wellington Convention Centre on 801 4231 or visit
www.wellingtonconventioncentre.com
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69.15
GLOBAL IMAGES
World Press Photo Exhibition
16 June - 9 July, Shed 11, Wellington's Waterfront
See the photo's the world leaders should be seeing...
World Press Photo 2006, the world's most prestigious press photography exhibition, will feature over 200 award-winning photographs that highlight major global issues of last year. This exhibition will travel to over 85 cities around the world, including Wellington.
Entry by gold coin donation. For more details visit:
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/events/index.html
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69.16
GALLERY HELP
ROAR! gallery is looking for committed, reliable volunteers to join its team which promotes Outsider Art. We need people to help us hang shows; help out at openings and other elements of general gallery life. We have good development opportunities for the right people in terms of budding curators, writers and artists. We are interested in your ideas; energy and willingness to help us keep building something really wonderful. Please contact Sian Torrington at
roargallery@paradise.net.nz
to register your interest or for further details.
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69.17
PABLO'S AUCTION ACTION
We are inviting proposals for performance art at Pablos annual art auction. This is a very high profile event, with wide media coverage and over 300 people in attendance. We are a community organisation which raises funds at this event, and we are looking for a static performance around which we can place collection buckets. We are thinking a contemporary version of the static sculpture works, but are open to suggestions. Please contact Sian Torrington at
roargallery@paradise.net.nz
for further details, and submit proposals by 30th September 2006.
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69.18
NOW AT ENJOY
Clubs Project Inc and Christopher L G Hill present
work by Christopher L G Hill & James Deuthsher, and guests
June 14 - 30
CLUBSproject Inc. is an artist-initiated project, which initially resided above the old Builders Arms Hotel in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia, operating from this site for three and a half years. Since the closure of this pub CLUBSproject encountered a struggle with the new landlords and it became untenable to remain on these premises.
This situation opened up the possibility of becoming a more nomadic project. No longer having a fixed address, CLUBS operates as an event-based outfit finding temporary sites for projects to take place. So far this has included the balcony of a shop, the rooms of a local furniture store, a container, and the Ocular Lab artist space.
For their latest project CLUBS will be hosted by Enjoy Gallery. Comprising mainly of donated works collected from Christopher L G Hill's journey from Melbourne to Wellington, via Auckland. In addition to the work of Christopher L G Hill and James Deuthser, featured Australian artists will include Sean Bailey, Helen Johnson, Nick Mangan, Josh Petherick, Kain Picken, Masato Takasaka and Annie Wu to be displayed alongside the work of New Zealand artists.
Simulating the order and chaos of the cosmos, through blurring the role of author, curator, holiday, space, object, gallery and anonymity, themes of ownership and hosting will be explored. A publication will be produced to accompany the exhibition as well.
All work in the show will be available free for the public to take home on its closing.
Enjoy Public Art Gallery
Level 1, 147 Cuba Street
Wellington
P: 04 384 0174
E: enjoy@enjoy.org.nz
W: www.enjoy.org.nz
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69.19
THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS
Kia Ora New Zealand Friends:
We are the Goldenberg Duo-a classical,sister/brother, violin/piano professional team. We just returned from a concert tour of British Columbia. We are planning to visit Australia/New Zealand in 2007.
I am Susan,a violinist with the Kansas City Symphony. My brother,William,is Distinguished Professor of Piano at Northern Illinois University. We have years of experience in chamber music,solo recitals and orchestral playing and as a duo have performed together for 26 yrs.
We would be honored to perform a recital for the people of Wellington. Our time frame for 2007 is April 7-9. We have studied at Indiana Unversity,Yale University and Juilliard School. We would ask for a small stipend and perhaps housing at one of your hostels.
We look forward to your kind reply. We appreciate your time and consideration. We welcome any other contacts you have in your area for a concert or master class.
Many thanks,
Susan Goldenberg
helengo2002@yahoo.com
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69.20
CIRCUS AND COMMUNITY
Circus arts lift Chile's troubled youths...
Circo del Mundo has been credited with getting kids off the street, off drugs, and on to a meaningful life.
By Jen Ross, The Christian Science Monitor
SANTIAGO, CHILE In the north end of Chile's sprawling capital, Santiago, the graffiti-covered neighborhood of Quinta Normal is considered one of the most "vulnerable" inner-city communities for youth. The Lo Franco Elementary School has long struggled to inoculate its preteens against the temptations of drugs and other social ills. But they've started making inroads, with an unusual approach.
Inside the school gymnasium, a dozen kids face each other in two parallel lines and take turns rolling up make-believe balls of energy and throwing them at each other - and the more noise, body language, and facial expressions they make, the better. It's one of the exercises in their first week of "circus class" - a groundbreaking social program that uses juggling, acrobatics, and a lot of clowning around to help 500 at-risk youths per year, mainly in Santiago.
"Circus arts combine a number of talents that are key for kids at risk,"
explains Bartolome Silva, a former actor and director of the organization that runs this program, Circo del Mundo (Circus of the World). "The magic of the circus awakens their creative potential, essential for all humans, and which many kids are lacking here. But the circus also improves self-esteem and encourages discipline, because you have to take care of your body, train yourself, focus, sleep well, and a number of other challenges that teach kids self-control. Today, many kids have a boring routine and are lacking such positive challenges."
The idea of using circus arts to help troubled youth was the brainchild of the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil. The Montreal-based entertainment empire began its first two "social circus" pilot projects in Chile and Brazil, in 1995. Today, Cirque du Soleil has 50 projects running in 19 countries, many of them in developing nations. Cirque du Soleil says the programs help get kids off the streets, off drugs, and improve their performance and behavior in school.
Read more
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0607/p12s01-woam.html
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69.21
WELLY'S PARTY PEOPLE
A closer look at a slice of the scene, or a few people making their own...
http://www.neonsleep.com./partyphoto/wellington/wellington.html
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69.22
DESIGN IN OUR TIMES
http://autistk.com/
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69.23
AFFORDABLE ARTS ON ITS WAY
4-6 August 2006
The inaugural New Zealand Affordable Art Show took place in August 2004 at the Events Centre in Wellington. The show ran for a three-day period with an opening gala evening. 6,000 people attended the show and spent a total of $395,000. Many people walked away from the art show with their first ever piece of original art under their arms; many artists sold their first piece of art. Artists were being scouted by art connoisseurs and eventually had phone calls from gallery owners.
Feedback from artists and the public was extremely positive and it became very clear that the event was sustainable annually. The 2005 show built on the success of its predecessor, but more streamlined processes and a refined marketing campaign made it run much more smoothly and attract many more artists and visitors. This trend is set to continue as process, strategy and marketing are further improved in 2006.
http://www.affordableart.co.nz/
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69.24
WHOLE NEW WELLINGTONISTA
http://wellingtonista.com/
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69.25
SHED 11 TAKES A PORTRAIT, A PHOTOGRAPH
http://nzcp.wellington.net.nz/
http://www.nzportgal.org.nz/
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69.26
SOUTH PROJECT HEADS EAST
Aided by the generous support of Creative New Zealand the South Project looks towards Chile as the next location for the annual Gathering of artists, writers and cultural thinkers, following on from the success of the gathering held in Wellington in 2005. Creative New Zealand has been an integral supporter of the project and this will continue in 2006 through funding from the CNZ Arts Board. The South Project will base itself in Santiago, in October 2006, to present two major international exhibitions under the South banner alongside the symposium Culture and Politics in times of the South, which will feature speakers from across the south including a consortium of leading New Zealand arts practitioners and commentators.
TRANS VERSA, conversing across the south features the work of Australian and New Zealand artists and is co-curated by Australian curator Zara Stanhope, who made a significant contribution to the New Zealand art scene as the inaugural Director of the Adam Art Gallery, and Danae Mossman, Director of the Physics Room in Christchurch. Reflective of New Zealand's growing relationship with its Pacific neighbor Chile, TRANS VERSA brings to the fore important cultural ideas and practices emerging from lateral connections between the countries. TRANS VERSA features the work of six established and emerging artists from New Zealand including Dane Mitchell, Maddie Leach, David Clegg, Daniel Malone, and Fiona Jack. All avid contributors to the New Zealand art scene, these artists present an artistic perspective firmly grounded by a New Zealand vernacular yet progressively outward looking in their attempts to explore the tenants and threads of lateral connections, migration, travel and modes of communications - the language of an increasing global village. The Australian artists include, among others, Tom Nicholson, Selina Ou and Ash Keating.
Housed in three of the leading venues in Santiago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Galeria Metropolitana and Matucana100, TRANS VERSA will be the first major exhibition to be developed by the South Project and an important point of contact for a Chilean audience largely unfamiliar with contemporary art practice from New Zealand and Australia. The second exhibition to tour to Santiago is Make the Common Precious, an exhibition of contemporary Australian craft, curated Kevin Murray, director of Craft Victoria and the South Project.
The exhibitions will open during the symposium Culture and Politics in Times of the South, which will take place from 3-6 October 2006. The symposium will provide speakers an opportunity to debate and explore issues concerning contemporary art practice in the south, particularly notions of translation, political activism in the arts, notions of exile, alternative structures and collective practices. The New Zealand presence at the symposium will be significant and include leading arts thinkers such as Ian Wedde, Christina Barton and Manos Nathan.
Further information on the Santiago Gathering can be found on the project website
http://www.southproject.org
Registrations for the Gathering will be received in August.
For all media enquires please contact Nicola Harvey
nharvey@craftvic.asn.au
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69.27
NOTE FROM THE BRITISH COUNCIL
Click on the link below to read about British Council's work in Design.
We've got an exciting programme of events in train and look forward to seeing you soon.
www.britishcouncil.org/nz-newsletter-june06
Best Wishes
Anna
Anna Cameron
Arts and Creative Industries
British Council New Zealand
PO Box 1812
Wellington 6001
New Zealand
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69.28
YOUNG AND HUNGRY
festival of new works
Bats Theatre 1 Kent Terrace Wellington
Season: Friday 16th June - Saturday 1st July
Tickets: $16/$12 concession. Season Pass: $38 full / $24 concession
Bookings Ph 802 4175
book@bats.co.nz
Since 1994 the Young and Hungry Festival of New Works has been getting together the hottest young theatre talent to bring Wellington an annual festival of new plays. Young actors, designers and technicians get to stretch their creative legs under the guidance of professional directors, writers and mentors.
How to live in a world full of terrorists
Written by Laura Staples
Directed By Penni Bousfield
6.30pm
Three friends find themselves barricaded in one of their flats with only a couple of gun-touting soldiers for company. Time passes and the three detainees start to run out of food and supplies... Why is this happening to them? How did they get there? Who is to blame? Can they even trust each other?
Generator
Written by Rochelle Bright
Directed by Damon Andrews
8pm
It's Pauly's 21st birthday. Old friends are partying it up in a hay shed, terrifying each other with urban legends...The Generator starts playing up and old secrets come to light when a ghost from the past comes back to haunt them. By the end of the night they will all finally know the truth about what happened to their friend Lottie 5 years ago.
Butt Ugly
Written by Thomas Sainsbury
Directed Kate Tarrant
9.30pm
Claudia is fed up with the way the world treats ugly folk like her. She organizes a resistance movement made up of fatties, gingers, stumpies, bucktoothed and bald students to expose institutionalized uglyism. All seems to be going well until the fat lady screams and Tyler (Mr. Popular) is kidnapped.
www.youngandhungry.org.nz
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69.29
VENICE DEBATE
National wants Creative New Zealand to change the way it selects works for the Venice Arts Biennale.
The taxpayer-backed art entry has been controversial in the past with strong criticism of New Zealand's last exhibit - The Fundamental Practice. The piece, described by some as a portaloo that brayed like a donkey, was by artist Auckland Merilyn Tweedie who uses the collective name "et al". Tweedie was also widely criticised for refusing to make herself available to the media. Yesterday Creative New Zealand issued a report saying New Zealand would return to the biennale in 2009 as part of a wider international market development strategy. It said Creative New Zealand's main failing last year was anticipating and managing the negative media reaction to the selection of the artist - particularly in Wellington - and that the controversy found its way into the political realm.
Read more
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3686938a14297,00.html
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69.30
GRANTS NEWS
Creative New Zealand has offered 209 grants, totalling more than $3.5 million, supporting arts projects in its latest project funding round, announced in late May.
Through Te Waka Toi, the Arts Board and the Pacific Arts Committee, Creative New Zealand supported a range of activity from creative and professional development opportunities, the creation of new work, the presentation and promotion of work, heritage arts, and arts projects that promote links between indigenous peoples.
Also included in the project funding round are grants offered to moving-image makers through the Screen Innovation Production Fund, a partnership between Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission.
The closing dates for applications to the 2006-2007 project funding rounds are 5pm, Friday 28 July 2006 and 5pm, Friday 23 February 2007.
Click on the link below for a list of grants.
http://creativenz.govt.nz/funding/grants/05-06-2.pdf
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69.31
ALBEE'S STRANGE ANIMALS
Our creativity distinguishes us from other species, but we can't take it for granted, says playwright Edward Albee.
By Edward Albee, EDWARD ALBEE has written more than 30 plays, including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" This essay is adapted and excerpted from the Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield Foundation Address, which Albee deli
May 30, 2006
AROUND THE TIME Darwin published "The Origin of Species," people began thinking really hard about what it was that distinguished us from all the other animals. For a while it was thought that we were the only animals capable of using tools. But it soon became clear that many species were very inventive, and we were not alone. Of course, there are only three or four animals on this planet that use tools for the joy of killing, and we humans are one of them.
For a while it was thought that we were the only animal capable of building an orderly society. However, investigation proved that ants, termites and other creatures were capable of constructing a society at least as complex as that of mainland China - and easily as efficient.
For the longest while it was thought that we humans were the only animal possessed of - how was it put? - possessed of an immortal soul. Of course, those of us who have lived with Irish wolfhounds for most of our lives know that this is preposterous nonsense. I am reminded of what I hope is the true story told of a late-19th century French Catholic novelist, who on his deathbed is reputed to have said, "If I cannot be with my cats in heaven, I will not go."
There is one thing, however, that does distinguish us from all the other animals, and it is this: We are the only animal that makes art. We are the only animal that has invented metaphor to define ourselves to ourselves.
Now, I know about these experiments being done with chimpanzees and gorillas, persuading them to communicate with us by sign language. Interestingly, it is only the female chimpanzees and gorillas that are interested in this communication, the males being content to shriek in ways we have not translated. And some of these females have been taught a rather extensive sign language, a vocabulary of perhaps 400 words - certainly larger than a number of New York cab drivers I've run across.
As far as I know, none of these female chimpanzees or gorillas has used the sign language skills to write a play. I'm sure, however, that as soon as one does, given the state of our commercial theater, it will be produced on Broadway; and, given the state of much of our criticism, it will run for three years.
But until - if - this occurs, I hold that we are the only animal that makes art, and I'm convinced that this is part of the evolutionary process. We all used to have a tail, you know. Not a collective one, you understand, but we still have a jut of bone at the base of our spine called the coccyx, and that is the vestigial remnant of our tails. You still have this jut of bone; don't look now, but take it as we must so much on faith. To simplify just a little bit, what happened is this: Somewhere along the line in the evolutionary process, our tails fell off and we grew art.
Read more
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-albee30may30,0,1070749.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
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69.32
RUSSIAN COURSE
Folkart and Matryoshka (Russian nesting dolls) painting
ten weeks course
This new course taught by an experienced Matryoshka artist is designed for students who wish to learn the basics of folk art painting. The course will be broken into two parts. The first part explores decorative painting techniques based on Ukrainian petrikivka style. You will complete a series of decorative designs, will make a special decorative brush and learn how to prepare wood, apply patterns and varnish. The second part of the course offers you a rare opportunity to paint your own matryoshka. This course is for both new and experienced artists wishing to add to their craft and painting skills. The matryoshka (5 dolls set) and all basic materials are provided.
Course starts 15 August
Tuesdays 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Cost: $220
To book: phone Tetyana Khytko
on 04 970 7107 or email
tetyana.khytko@paradise.net.nz
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69.33
NEW ZEALAND FILM FEST
Cannes top prize winner to open the Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals
Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley, winner of cinema's most prestigious award, the Cannes Palme d'Or, will open this year's Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals and screen in the country's four main centres. It is just one of many Cannes winners to play at the Festivals.
"We are delighted to have scooped this controversial film for the opening of the 2006 Telecom New Zealand International Film Festival. This year's programme is clamorous with films of activism and protest, so it's the perfect year to be celebrating this richly deserved accolade to one of cinema's most persistent agitators," says Bill Gosden, Festival Director.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which caps 40 years of politically provocative filmmaking by the British director, was selected as the ultimate prize winner from 20 films in the official competition over a week ago at the 59th Cannes Film Festival.
The provocative drama is set in Ireland's County Cork between 1920 and 1922; that dangerous period that saw the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty in December 1921 and the outbreak of civil war soon afterwards. It was a civil war that pitched brother against brother, as Irish popular history still very much remembers it, and it's this powerful dynamic that Loach adopts to tell this moving and intelligent story.
Another 2006 Cannes prize-winner secured for the New Zealand Festival audience is 12:08 East of Bucharest, which won the Camera d'Or prize for Best Film by a New Director.
Corneliu Porumboiu's feature début is a sardonic take on retrospective heroism, in which two guests are invited to recall their moments of revolutionary glory by their small-town TV channel. The revolution in question is that which took place 16 years ago and freed Romania from Communist rule.
Also fresh from the 2006 Cannes Directors' Fortnight is Princess, a Danish animated feature about a priest's violent campaign against pornography, and the powerful psychological drama Jindabyne, Ray Lawrence's follow-up to hugely popular Lantana.
From the Un Certain Regard category (those films in the official selection but not part of the competition) the Festival has secured: Ten Canoes, the stunning indigenous Australian film by Roolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, described by LA Weekly as a "celebration of the art of storytelling, and of the power of stories to transcend all barriers of space and time and language. This is a movie with sheer magic in it"; and Richard Linklater's film A Scanner Darkly, a sci-fi slacker movie based on Philip K. Dick's offbeat novel of the same name in which Linklater returns to the animated live-action technique of his 2001 cult hit Waking Life.
The Death of Mr Lazarescu, which took the Un Certain Regard Award in 2005, is another Romanian film that will be shown at the Festival. Described by Bill Gosden as "a drama about a 63-year-old drunk trying to get the medical attention he's convinced he needs. It is a mesmerizing, suspenseful, darkly funny, shrewdly humane and spiritually challenging movie. A masterpiece".
The Forsaken Land, which took 2005 Cannes glory by way of the Camera d'Or Award, will also screen at the Festival. Described as "unmistakably the work of someone in complete control of his material", the film by 27-year-old Vimukthi Jayasundara, is a spare, poetically fragmented and haunting look at life in the uneasy post-traumatic aftermath of decades of civil war in Sri Lanka.
The Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals has also secured several beautifully restored archival prints of Cannes award-winning classics which offer audiences unique big screen viewing opportunities.
Los Olvidados, by the great director Luis Buñuel, winner of the 1950 Cannes Best Director Award, is a gritty saga set amid the slums of Mexico City and follows a roving pack of abandoned street kids as they struggle to survive a typical day. "The singularly unvarnished look at life on the streets still impresses," says Bill Gosden.
Under Satan's Sun the controversial 1987 Palme d'Or winner and the first French film so honoured in 21 years, is a dark and demanding study of faith and evil, starring Gérard Depardieu in one of his most powerful performances. It is one of ten films featured in the Festivals' retrospective dedicated to the Maurice Pialat.
This year's programme draws from a pool of over 150 features, documentaries, animated and short films hand picked by the Festivals' programmers over the last year from around the world. The entire programme will be announced in Auckland on 20 June and Wellington on 22 June.
The Festivals tour 16 centres around New Zealand between July and November. Telecom recently renewed its sponsorship of the Festival for a further two years. Telecom's Head of Group Brand and Sponsorship Peter Parussini said the Festival has grown each year since the company became involved, with Auckland achieving a record crowd in 2005.
"Film is another way of communicating, using a combination of technology and creativity, that clearly touches the lives of many New Zealanders in a unique way. We are delighted to be involved with bringing the world of film to New Zealanders," Parussini said.
Festival dates: Auckland
The 2006 website
www.nzff.telecom.co.nz
awaits your visit.
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69.34
ART/PUBLIC
Wellington's streets are under the spotlight in a new exhibition at the Arts Centre.
The exhibition, Making Art Public, has Wellington artists challenging perceptions of what is art by displaying street art and images of the city in a gallery setting. Wellington Arts Centre Gallery Co-ordinator Katie Duke says the show is presented as an experimental workshop.
"It is about breaking down the barrier between the austere and sometimes intimidating gallery environment and that of public spaces."
The work will feature graffiti art from Wellington's TripleS Crew and Robert Appierdo's audio visual installation, Beautiful City.
Miss Duke says by moving from Wellington buildings to canvas and gallery walls, TripleS Crew is stimulating debate and maybe changing views about what graffiti is.
Likewise Appierdo's Beautiful City depicts his view of public space in Wellington by using both moving and still images.
The work is an experiment through video and dance that portrays the difference between urban and rural New Zealand. The artist uses improvised dance to express the energy of Wellington City and contrasts that with the openness of the Desert Road.
Making Art Public is on view through 20 June at the Wellington Arts Centre Gallery, 61 Abel Smith Street.
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/artscentre/gallery.html
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69.35
DAWN OF CRAFTWERK
A Word from the Artists Formerly Known as Bitchcraft
As much as we love BitchCraft, we loved the concept more than the name.
So it's bye bye BitchCraft and kia ora CraftWerk. The inaugural CraftWerk hits The Paramount Theatre on the 13th of July from 5.30pm.
we are all about -
Live music, Crafts, Food, Skulls, Pet rocks, Art show, Big Screen Atari fun, Mix tape swaps, Robots, Nerds, Band merch, Fashion, Bunnies, Geeks, Planes, Knitting, Cupcakes, Booze.....
*Vendors *
Were looking for vendors, get you shit together and talk to us.
apply at www.craftwerk.co.nz, or emailing craft@craftwerk.co.nz.
CraftWerk only accepts vendors with handmade items. So don't expect any imported second class creations or junk from your Nana's Hat Box. Unless it's a very stylish Hat Box in which case it's probably been converted into a bag.
* Bands *
Come play for us.
or
Let us sell your merch and EP's for you. (for free bitches)
* Evil Minions *
Come help spread the geek.
...and people from other cities keen to help us out with our plans for world domination......
Craft ON!
Heather & Sue
craft@craftwerk.co.nz
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69.36
MORE ABOUT THE NEW CRAFTWERK
CraftWerk is a bi-monthly craft fair featuring the best and brightest of the Wellington craft scene. The inaugural CraftWerk launches at The Paramount Theatre on the 13th of July from 5.30pm.
CraftWerk will feature a diverse range of: art, handmade items, and indie designer fashion, representing New Zealand's handmade revolution. What sets CraftWerk apart from any other fair is our intention to foster and inspire kiwi crafters without profiting at their expense. Simply think traditional fairs with a twist and you have CraftWerk.
The Paramount Theatre Wellington's oldest Cinema and now its hottest events venue is where CraftWerk calls home. The Paramount's lounge bar is stocked with a wide range of beers and wines as well as soft drinks, snacks and Kapiti ice-cream. This relaxing atmosphere, in the middle of Wellington's hub of entertainment and nightlife, Courtenay Place, allows vendors and shoppers alike a break from the bustle and a chance to absorb the CraftWerk experience.
Right now CraftWerk is accepting applications for vendors. Application details can be located at www.craftwerk.co.nz, or by emailing us. There is no charge for applying; our only pre-requisite is that everything vendors sell is handmade and coming from the bottom of their crafty heart.
Unlike traditional fairs CraftWerk supplies vendors with a table, chair and a private mailing list to share tips, tricks or a crafty shoulder to cry on when the cat turns your wool collection into a bed. Additionally if CraftWerk manages to obtain sponsorship we plan to refund every Vendor a third of their application fee on the night. Yes, yet another thing which makes CraftWerk different from every other fair or market in New Zealand.
CraftWerk only accepts vendors with handmade items. So don't expect any imported second class creations or junk from your Nana's Hat Box. Unless it's a very stylish Hat Box in which case it's probably been converted into a bag. So get your Craft On and be at the Paramount Theatre for a night of Craft on July 13th from 5.30pm
CraftWerk is organised (for love and not for profit) by dedicated crafters Heather Barnes and Sue Tyler. Heather was the genius mind behind BitchCraft and Sue one of the Crafters. Held twice in 2005 BitchCraft was a smashing success. In fact, most vendors had only two complaints: there were too many bodies and they sold out of merchandise! Not a bad problem to have if you're a vendor! Vendors and shoppers told us that BitchCraft was the BEST fair they had ever attended.
Both Sue and Heather are available for interviews to discuss CraftWerk, the rising craft revolution, craft demonstrations and anything else craft related. The only problem might be getting them to stop talking.
For more information - visit www.craftwerk.co.nz
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69.36
ZOO STORY
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo . . .
Memories and experiences of Wellington zookeepers, and others who have had strong connections with the Wellington Zoo, will be handed over to the Turnbull Library's Oral History Centre next week.
The Wellington Zoo Centenary Oral History Project was commissioned by the Wellington Zoo Trust, and funded by the Lottery Grants Board, in recognition of the Zoo's centenary, that is being celebrated this year.
The project, consisting of 15 interviews and including stories that reach back as far as the 1930s, was carried out by oral historian Susan Fowke.
'The interviews cover a wide range of experience, from elephant-keeping to breeding kiwi, to watching chimpanzees' tea parties, but the common denominator is always a love of animals,' Ms Fowke said.
'At the time of the interviews, six were with current Zoo employees and two with past employees. Of these, there are three women and five men. The remaining seven are people who had strong childhood connections with the Zoo - either because their fathers were zookeepers or because they were regular visitors. Two are grandchildren of one of the original Zoo benefactors.
'The Zoo's longest-serving employee was one of the people interviewed. Frank Coles started work at the Zoo in 1954 as a 14-year-old and now, 52 years on, is still working there,' Ms Fowke said.
'Mr Coles is highly regarded for his work as keeper of the chimpanzees. At first he worked alongside his father, Ken Coles, who was Head Keeper when the chimpanzees first arrived at the zoo, and together they trained the chimpanzees for their public tea parties. Later Frank and his wife hand-raised two baby chimps in their own home - bottle feeding with advice from the Karitane Hospital - because the mother could not feed them. After a year living with the Coles, the chimps were successfully reintegrated with their mother and the rest of the group.
For further information, please contact:
Susan Bartel, Public Relations Manager
Alexander Turnbull Library
Phone: 0-4-474 3119
Fax: 0-4-474 3063
susan.bartel@natlib.govt.nz
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69.37
ADULT LAUGHS
Hi comedy chums
R30 - Stand - up comedy for those who'd rather have a nice lie down will present thier next show at Katipo Cafe, 76 Willis Street (next to New World Metro) Wednesday 21st June. Entry is from 7.30pm and there are Happy Hour prices at the bar to welcome you on these chilly evenings.
Featured this month, fresh from the comedy festival and ready to rock your slippers off are Fifi Colston, Lorraine Ward, Fergus Aitken, Mike Bodnar and MC Matt Elliott.
Tickets are $10, book by calling Lorraine Ward on 385 6085 or emailing
comedystar51@hotmail.com
or we'll see you at the door.
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69.38
WORDS WANTED
The Communication Research Group of the School of Creative Communication at the University of Canberra is putting together an anthology of short fiction and poetry written in and/or about the South Pacific, by both established and emerging writers.
While Pacific writing is still relatively new, there have been a few excellent anthologies published in the past decade, and this one seeks to add to our understanding of this dynamic region that emerges in such publications.
They invite submissions of unpublished work for consideration for this anthology: poetry, or short fiction (up to, say, 1500 words). It may be that the stories and poems selected are those that bring to light the wonderful paradoxes of the South Pacific region, with the focus always moving between seaways and land masses, tradition and innovation. It may be that they draw out the ways in which writers in this region experience the processes of coming and going, of moving between spaces while remaining attached to home. It may be that they offer ways of speaking between and across the cultures, languages, traditions, histories, concerns and contexts. The editors do not wish to set a theme, but to respond to the works that are submitted, and to produce a book that showcases writing from the region, and focuses on who we are, and where we might be going.
The anthology will be launched at the triennial ACLALS Conference in Vancouver, Canada, in August 2007. If you would like to contribute to this anthology, please email your submissions to Jen Webb
Jennifer.Webb@canberra.edu.au
and Kavita Nandan
nandan_k@usp.ac.fj
by 15 September 2006. They will respond with a decision within 3 months.
(Please note: for the purposes of this collection, and for reasons of focus, South Pacific does not include Aotearoa/NZ, Australia or Southeast Asian nations.) However, so as long as people identify as members of the South Pacific community - from the islands outside Aotearoa/NZ; or if the story or poem is about the South Pacific, then their submissions will certainly be welcomed.
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69.39
BOOK MONTH VOTING
From June 5th-July 2nd New Zealanders are invited to read the 25 short-listed entries in the New Zealand Book Month competition online at www.nzbookmonth.co.nz and vote for their favourite piece of writing.
New Zealand Book Month is a month long celebration of NZ books and NZ writers from 18 September - 15 October 2006.
The winner of the online voting will be included in The Six Pack - an anthology of six winning entries published to coincide with the launch of New Zealand Book Month later this year.
The winners will be announced at a gala event in Auckland on Monday 18 September. The Six Pack will then be for sale at all good bookshops for $6 - that's $1 per piece of writing. Each winning author will also receive one of six cash prizes of $5,000 each.
The other five winning entries will be chosen by the a distinguished panel of judges including World Cup winning All Black captain and now CEO of John Fairfax Holdings Ltd David Kirk, broadcaster Maggie Barry, bookseller Tom Beran, author Sarah-Kate Lynch and current affairs host John Campbell.
The judges have been enthusiastic about the quality and diversity of the entries and are pleased to be able to support New Zealand Book Month.
John Campbell says, "We are a nation of readers and writers. For a country this size we produce some fantastic books. New Zealand Book Month is a great idea and I am thrilled to support it by judging the entries in The Six Pack competition.
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69.40
PIPE ME A TUNE
The New Zealand Police Pipe Band and a combined Wellington Representative Brass Band are joining together in a concert at the Wellington Town Hall on Sunday the 23rd July at 2pm. The concert also features Police dogs on stage, Kildunne Irish Dancers, The Wellington town hall pipe organ and solo piper, Kimikaka Maori concert party and a couple of comedians. Tickets are on sale through tickettek and indications are that this will be a sold out concert due to this being a one off event. The NZ Police Pipe Band are one of the top in the world and this is their first ever concert!
thank you
any queries can be made to me at sanderc@paradise.net.nz
regards
Andrew Sander
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69.41
CITY GALLERY WARMS UP
Winter Season of Wellington Art at City Gallery
Come in from the cold with City Gallery' Wellington's Winter Season of Wellington Art. The season brings together two major Wellington artists and a special Wellington collection.
Elizabeth Thomson-my hi- fi my sci- fi collates some of Wellington sculptor Elizabeth Thomson's largest, most audacious creations of the past twenty years. This exhibition highlights the perplexing, beautiful, sometimes disturbing, often dazzling work of one of Wellington's leading contemporary artists.
This retrospective, curated by Gregory O'Brien, will be the largest presentation of works by Elizabeth Thomson to date. The exhibition includes around thirty works, ranging from Thomson's small, precious arrangements of moths to her dizzying, wall-sized leaf-works.
Since the late 1980s, Thomson has been fascinated with the formal qualities and imaginative potentials she finds in nature. She pays particular attention to plants, insects and molecular structures. The works themselves explore and embody natural processes of migration (a school of fishes), growth (plant-forms), regeneration (trees) and other natural phenomena. The exhibition focuses on key works from throughout the artist's career, charting the movement or migration of forms and meanings through her work as a whole.
Movement and migration are key ideas in the work of octogenarian art statesman Guy Ngan. The Stokes Valley-based artist has been making sculptures, paintings, drawings and prints for the last sixty years. His abstract public sculptures are peppered through cities and towns all over New Zealand; murals, wall reliefs, tiled decorative schemes, large textile works and in-the-round sculptures. These works are seen every day by thousands of people, often with little recognition of who they are by and how significant a practice they represent.
Guy Ngan-Journey: Aluminium Panel, Tiki Hands and Anchor Stones is a taster to his diverse practices and includes work from two series made during the 1970s and 80s-paintings featuring a three-fingered tiki hand motif and sculptures inspired by Polynesian stone anchors. Both series are representative of Ngan's ongoing interest in the early settlement of the Pacific and visual and linguistic points of connection between Asiatic and Polynesian peoples.
These domestic-scale works are joined by a large cast aluminium public relief sculpture, the 1973 Newton Post Office Mural. A major figure in New Zealand modernism and abstraction, noted across the fields of architecture, design and visual art, Guy Ngan continues to draw upon his Chinese-New Zealand heritage and maintain a strong investigation of New Zealand as a Pacific nation.
Dr Ian Prior is another octogenarian who continues to make a massive contribution to Wellington. Luncheon Under the Ash Tree presents the art collection of this committed Wellingtonian and his late wife Elespie.
Frontseat, like many others, rates Prior as one of New Zealand's top five arts patrons. Among other endeavours, the distinguished anti-nuclear activist is a founding member of the Wellington Sculpture Trust and also serves the National Library, on the Lilburn Residence Trust and the Sounz Centre for Contemporary Music.
Together the Priors' amassed a significant and deeply personal art collection, spanning over fifty years in the making. Showcasing such major names as Colin McCahon, Toss Woollaston, Ralph Hotere, John Drawbridge and Evelyn Page the collection arose from the Priors' support and passion for New Zealand art and through their personal friendships with many artists. Many of the works have intriguing, touching, amusing stories.
City Gallery Wellington Director, Paula Savage says: "City Gallery Wellington is committed to Wellington art, and we're proud and thrilled to have artists and art of this calibre to showcase."
The Winter Season of Wellington Art
City Gallery Wellington, Sunday 18 June - 24 September 2006
FREE ENTRY
www.citygallery.org.nz
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69.42
AND EVEN HOTTER
Exciting Contemporary Art at City Gallery
City Gallery Wellington is pleased to present 2 x 2 Contemporary Projects, a series of two exhibitions, each showcasing two contemporary artists' solo exhibitions. Fresh and innovative, these artworks and artists are at the forefront of contemporary practices.
While these are four distinct exhibitions, each with their own sets of agendas and concerns, they have been carefully selected by curator Emma Bugden to generate dialogue. Individually they explore a diverse range of issues from the impact of colonisation on Maori to the never-ending resonance of a heritage in a distant land. Together they create a conversation about the complexity of personal and cultural identity in today's urban and global environment.
"What I want to show is an intimate and particular view," says Edith Amituanai. In Mrs Amituanai, Amituanai (nee Sagapolu) photographs her extended family and friends to explore the relationship between personal and communal rituals and the way traditions change across time and geography. The exhibition features a series of photographs of New Zealand Samoan weddings, including her own wedding where she became Mrs Amituanai. Significantly she is one of twenty photographers selected for inclusion in the recent major publication Contemporary New Zealand Photography.
In Back to Mine: Urban Realities, we see Kelcy Taratoa standing in an urban environment dotted with references to the New Zealand urban landscape immediately familiar to all New Zealanders- a 4 Square, street signs, state houses. Entering this world are superheroes-Spiderman, Batman, the Hulk and the Silver Surfer. The paintings, with their rich collision of iconic images, construct a complex topography which charts the impact of colonisation and globalisation on local cultures. There are no explicitly Maori images in the paintings apart from Taratoa; that absence speaks to many urban Maori raised away from their iwi, language and culture.
Lonnie Hutchinson and Sriwhana Spong feature in the second season. The blackness in Lonnie Hutchinson's Parallel Seductions seduces as the colour of power and potential. Hutchinson, of Ngai Tahu and Samoan descent, has been exhibiting regularly in New Zealand and internationally since the late 1990s. In a flowing confident brushstroke, Hutchinson paints intimate large-scale drawings of women directly onto City Gallery's walls. Hutchinson's distinctive brand of iconography, loosely drawn from traditional Maori and Samoan forms, suggest a symbolic protection. The work is sensual, seductive and politically charged.
In 2005 video and installation artist Sriwhana Spong won the Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award. Hailed by The Herald for her "great powers of invention...", Spong addresses and explores links between physical and spiritual worlds, the known and the unknown and the differing cultural attitudes of east and west toward these states. Spong's video and sculptural installation Twin Oak Drive places her own Balinese heritage alongside other areas of exotic and uncertain terrain-from space travel to horror movies, a Lynchian world where all is not as it seems.
City Gallery Wellington Director Paula Savage says: "It is a privilege to bring this exciting body of work to Wellington. As always, we are extremely grateful to Telecom, for joining with us once again in presenting leading contemporary New Zealand art to Wellington."
Edith Amituanai/Kelcy Taratoa, 18 June- 30 July 2006
Lonnie Hutchinson/Sriwhana Spong, 5 August - 24 September 2006
2 x 2 Contemporary Projects
City Gallery Wellington
Free Entry
www.citygallery.org.nz
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69.43
HAPPY TRAILS
Deep Earplug Music
Sunday 18th June, 8:30pm sharp. $5 entry Happy, on the corner of Tory and Vivien Streets, Wellington
Postmoderncore brings you Deep Earplug Music 01, the first in a long running series of gigs. Our initial focus is accoustic feedback - feedback that involves the actual vibration of physical objects. Guitars leaned up against amplifiers, microphones wailing, and other light entertainment. We intend to provide sonic investigations for often uncatered to palettes. Our guests for the first night are Jonny Marks, the Unknown Rockstar, and grv dgr. Starts at 8:30pm sharp so be there on time, have a chat to the artists, and have a good time. Earplugs for sale on the night.
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69.44
DEPP SOUTH
Online journal Deep South is emerging from several years of hibernation. It is currently inviting submissions of original poetry, short fiction, critical essays, extracts from work in progress, reviews, and work by artists and photographers. Submissions can be made by email to deep.south@stonebow.otago.ac.nz or by mail to Deep South, Department of English, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin. The journal can be viewed at
www.otago.ac.nz/deepsouth/index.html
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69.45
SCRIPT TO SCREEN
Script to Screen is the new name of the organisation formerly known as The New Zealand Writers Foundation. On 7 June the fresh face of the script writers' organisation was launched with a new programme, including a public event series called 'The Writer's Room', which offers 'an opportunity for both experienced and emerging writers to meet regularly to discuss their craft and hot industry topics.' Script to Screen will continue with its work developing the local screenwriting culture. Previous projects include script workshops for Brad McGann's In My Father's Den and the forthcoming features Eagle vs Shark by Taika Waititi, and Black Sheep by Jonathan King, as well as UK scholarships for New Zealand screenwriters (in partnership with the British Council).
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69.46
FINAL FOUR
Only 4 spaces left in the...
New Meisner Acting
Weekend Workshop
@ The Film School
Sandford Meisner's Acting Technique taught at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre in New York, promotes individuality and confidence while giving students practical and effective tools to build character and performance. This weekend workshop will focus on the improvisational and instinctive exercises from the technique in the search for emotional truth and realistic behaviour. It is not only popular with those wanting to pursue acting seriously but also people interested in exploring their creativity and genuine, unpretentious and pragmatic self-development.
Sat/Sun 17th & 18th June
10am - 5pm 2 The Film School
Level 1, 4-8 Oxford Terrace, Newtown
Cost: $150 (incl. gst)
WARNING: The technique and this course are challenging and fun. Only call if you have courage and a sense of humour. You'll have fun but it will be tough!
Contact Barbara Woods at msbarbarella@hotmail.com or phone (027) 5487053
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69.47
HEAVEN'S BREATH - A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
Heaven's Breath, the New Zealand School of Dance Choreographic Season 2006, takes you on a journey, at times meditative and at others highly energetic, through a physical and stimulating exploration of the energy centres of the human body (chakras).
Every human being has seven chakras. Each chakra represents an aspect of consciousness vital to our lives (such as safety, sexuality, power, love, communication, intuition and self realisation), and are invisible to the naked eye. Together, they are the network through which mind, body and spirit interact as one holistic system.
Eleven second and third year contemporary dance students have combined resources with lighting design students from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School to present an evening of new dance that is creative, emotive, vibrant and innovative.
The choreographers have taken an in-depth look into the seven major chakras and created dance movement that reflects the dynamic rhythms and healing properties of each. Additionally they have explored the power of breath and the concept of all encompassing light.
Featuring a commissioned score, Wellington-based composer Stephen Gallagher has collaborated with each of the choreographers to mould their creative ideas into a cohesive whole.
Third year student Sophie Ryan speaks of her enthusiasm for Heaven's Breath: "Throughout this collaborative process we have been faced with the challenging question where does dance begin - is it with the movement, music, costuming or lighting design? All of these components have become aligned during the creative process and as the work nears completion, it is exciting to see how it ebbs and flows between the atmospheric and sensual, encompasses emotional and physical extremes and culminates in the balance of energy."
This creative journey is made possible thanks to the support of The Lion Foundation, Radio Active 89FM and Graphic Press & Packaging Ltd.
Heaven's Breath - NZSD Choreographic Season 2006
16 June to 24 June (no show Mon 19 June)
Fri 16 June, Sat 17 June, Tues 20 June - Sat 24 June at 8.00pm.
Sun 18 June at 2.00pm
Where: Te Whaea Theatre. Te Whaea: National Dance and Drama Centre,
11 Hutchison Road, Newtown, Wellington
Tickets: $15 - Adult/Waged, $12 - Concession/Student/Unwaged
Bookings: 04 381 9254 (automated line). Groups and School Bookings: 04 381 9216
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69.48
SOUNZ Community Commissions
Community groups and professional composers have until the end of this month to come up with proposals for forming a creative partnership over the next year.
Administered by SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand Music, the SOUNZ Community Commission provides up to $1500 for the creation of a new piece of music - anything from recorders, choir, theatre music to brass band or orchestra.
The proposals can come from either the Community Groups, or the composers themselves. The Community Commission has been an annual award since 1999 made possible through the generosity of an overseas benefactor.
"The object of the Community Commission is to enable community groups and professional composers to work together in the creation of new music," SOUNZ Executive Director Scilla Askew explains. "The creation and performance of a new work often inspires a cooperative and energetic collaboration around a special event. The process has proven to be very rewarding for both the community groups and the composers involved."
Applications for the 2006 SOUNZ Community Commission close on Friday 30 June. Information, including an application form, can be found on the SOUNZ website,
www.sounz.org.nz
or by contacting the Centre for New Zealand Music on 04 801 8602 or by e-mail:
info@sounz.org.nz
Previous Community Commissions include Jonathan Besser's New Dawn for the Millennium Parade in Gisborne (1999), Helen Bowater's Hu - a work for massed recorders and gamelan for the NZ Recorder Conference in Christchurch (2001) and Rachel Clement's Taking Off , and anthem for inaugural Festival of Colour in Wanaka in 2005, performed by the by the Central Otago Regional Choir and Central Otago Regional Orchestra.
The 2005 SOUNZ Community Commission has seen composer Ross Carey and the students and tutors of the Homai School for the Blind and Visually Impaired July music course collaborating on a work for choir, piano and viola called Come Together. It will premiere at a public concert in Auckland on Thursday 6 July.
SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand music, is dedicated to promoting, fostering and providing the music of New Zealand composers. More information is available from the website at
Centre for NZ Music (SOUNZ)
PO Box 10042
Wellington, NZ
Street address: Level 1, 39 Cambridge Terrace
Phone: (64 4) 801 8602
Fax: (64 4) 801 8604
Email: info@sounz.org.nz
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69.49
I SING OF ARMS AND THE MAN
The Armed Man - a Mass for Peace has taken the UK by storm - every big choral society is singing it, the CD sales are high, and it is now taking off in New Zealand, with choirs lining up to hire the music.
Orpheus Choir's performance on Wednesday 28 June in Wellington Town Hall is the first in this country with full orchestra, and there's a terrific line-up of soloists - Jenny Wollerman, Helen Medlyn, Jack Bourke and Grant Dickson. Michael Fulcher conducts the Vector Wellington Orchestra.
The Armed Man begins with the 15th century French folk song - (L'Homme Arme - The armed man must always be feared.... ) and traces war-making through the ages - the violence and suffering, the loss and futility are explored through very evocative music. The trumpet call, the drum beats and marching songs are balanced by the Muslim Call to Prayer, verses from the Psalms, from a traditional Indian poem and a Hiroshima survivor as well as from the classical English poets. It all fits in to a framework of the traditional Latin Mass. Very powerful; very moving, and the message, composed for the millennium by one of the busiest of British composers Karl Jenkins, is very current in todays state of world conflict. The work was commissioned by the Master of the Royal Armouries, the world's most comprehensive military museum.
In the first half of the concert, Helen Medlyn sings the mezzo solo from Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, and Grant Dickson sings Songs and Dances of Death, Mussorgsky's beautiful song cycle, rarely heard in New Zealand.
Tickets $15-$40 from Ticketek; service charges apply. For more information, call 04 479 5384
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69.50
LATIN BEAT TONIGHT
Clave Latina: Que Sabor!
10PM Friday 16 June. $10.
8 piece salsa band live at Latinos featuring musicians from Cuba, Mexico, USA, Spain and New Zealand.
A Wellington band of Latins and Kiwis that together create a hot, spicey and exciting sound that you can really call salsa!
Featuring Adán Tijerina from Mexico, Miguel Arnedo Gomez from Spain, Roberto Rodriguez from Cuba, Rafael Ferrer Noel from Cuba, Tracey Wymess: New Zealand, Chris Eade: New Zealand, Bill Vella: New Zealand, Vaughn Roberts: New Zealand, Matt : USA and of course Carlos Navarrete from Mexico.
This band plays authentic Salsa with latin fire, flavour and flair.
Awsome percusion and rhythm, 'phat' brass section!
$10, DJ starts at 10:00PM band starts at 10:15PM sharp!
Latinos Bar corner of Tory and Vivian St.
Please come and support real, live latin music in Wellington and support Latinos, the only latin bar/nightclub in the Capital!
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69.51
AND LATIN NEW ART NEXT
Magdalena Aotearoa presents
Rosa Casado
Spanish theatre artist Rosa Casado will give workshops and performances in Wellington, from June 24 to 28. An independent creator and performer based in Madrid, Rosa Casado's work centres on rewriting reality by de-contextualising ordinary daily acts to explore new ways of "thinking" and "doing". She is particularly concerned with issues around tourism, migration and art's capacity for transformation.
"Paradise 2: the incessant sound of a falling tree" is a 30-minute solo performance which Rosa will present in Wellington, 24-25 June. In it, Rosa describes her own holiday in Mali, juxtaposed with the story of a man's migration from Senegal to Spain. The performance features a large chocolate island, and will be followed by a discussion with the artist.
"Paradise 2: the incessant sound of a falling tree"
8pm, Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 June
Wellington Performing Arts Centre
$15/$10
Local artists have the opportunity to participate in a two-day workshop with Rosa, "To Create in a Time and a Place." The workshop is directed at anyone wanting to investigate the capacity of art and action to speak about reality and to promote new ways of thinking. Places are limited to 10 per workshop, so book early to secure your place. The 2-day workshop costs $150 waged or $75 unwaged.
Workshop: "To Create in a Time and a Place"
24-25 June: 2-day workshop (Tararua Tramping Club)
27-28 June: 2-day workshop (Thistle Hall)
Further information about Rosa Casado, her performance and her workshop is available online at http://magdalena.actrix.co.nz/guests/rosa.html.
To register for the workshops and for any other enquiries including images, please email magdalen@actrix.co.nz or phone Helen Varley Jamieson on 021 023 92928 or (04) 934 9605.
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69.52
COLOURFUL SHEEP DEBUTS
Elfrida - the sheep who decides to be different
Gecko Press is launching its latest book with the help of a flock of dancing, singing, performing sheep from the Kidz Club Performing Arts School. The performance is open to the public and will take place in front of an audience of more than 200 young schoolchildren and will combine humour, song, rhyme and dance.
The book being launched is called Elfrida. It is the story of a sheep who decides to bring a little colour into her life. Bored by her white mop of hair she is inspired by a passing poodle to get a radical new cut and colour. When the other sheep, and the farmer's wife, see Elfrida's new look they decide they all want to look gorgeous too.
"I chose this book because it is warm, exuberant and light-hearted," says Gecko Press publisher Julia Marshall. "I think it has a strong New Zealand connection, not only because of the sheep, but because it celebrates individuality."
Elfrida, originally published in Austria, is by the same illustrator as the successful Donkeys, the first release from Gecko Press. Like Donkeys this book has been translated into English by Catherine Chidgey and adapted by Penelope Todd into rhyme.
With this title Gecko Press continues to give New Zealand children access to some of Europe's award-winning, popular, and beautifully illustrated books, publishing them in English for the first time.
Gecko Press publishes books which are strong in story, illustration and design, by authors and illustrators with a strong track record in a number of countries, and who are winners of international awards. Austrian illustrator Heide Stöllinger was awarded the Illustration Award of the Austrian State Prize for Children's Literature in 1998 and 2003, and the Golden apple for the Biennale Bratislava in 1999. Klara Fall is a journalist in Austria.
Elfrida will be launched in Wellington's Civic Square at Capital E on the morning of Tuesday 18 July from 11.00 am.
For further information please contact freelance publicist:
Kathryn Carmody
Tel. 04 387 2833
Mob. 027 287 7963
Email kathryn.carmody@gmail.com
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69.53
ART COMPASS ITEMS
Frames, perspex and matt board sale.
Nothing over $5.00
Cash sales only!
This Friday only 11.00 am-2.00 pm
Art Compass
1st floor
132 Tory Street
Wellington
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69.54
MYSTERY TONIGHT
And more at HAPPY
Friday 16th June - 10pm Show - Films
Stink Magnetic Tape presents thee One-Man-Band Show:
The Mysterious Tape Man! His lifes' work manifested was the very thing that led him to his watery un-death! Wild, killer SURF instrumentals! Touring for the very first time, his debut full-length album - "BORN TO DIE". Boss Christ!: THIS IS BOSS CHRISTS SIDEBURN SHOWCASE. King of Kiwi Spaghetti Western and New Zealands' contender for the worlds' wildest siudeburns. A master of reverberated slide guitar fuses with his home-made drum and upright bass backing. A true original.
Bad Evil!: Fuzzed out garage rock'n'roll! Hits from the bandit bearing homage to the spirit of wild, sonic riffage. Valiants, Jansens, Rock'n'Roll records... Mr. Evil knows them like the back of his deadly hand. With your host D. Thomas Herkes. Creator of New Zealands first Warewolf Film. Films: Shera; Girlfriend of the Wolf and Vampire Beach Party.
Saturday 17th June - Closed for Private Function
Sunday 18th June - $5 - 8.30
Postmoderncore loves Deep Earplug Music 01 featuring: Grvdgr, Jonny Marks and Unknown Rockstar - a night of accoustic feedback.
Tuesday 19th - Koha
Some Snazzy Humans - improvised music just the way you used to like it.
Wednesday 21 June -
While_you_were_sleeping presents bleep #1 - live music performance by people who make music using machines
Thursday 22 June -
Strangelove, Volcana and The Resistance
Friday 23 June -
Swoon In June Tour - House Of Dolls + Shocking Pinks
with guests Charlie Ash + So So Modern (DJ set)
House of Dolls is a 4 piece based in Christchurch, New Zealand. We formed from the dust of two short lived London bands - Idols Cracked Like Ice (1999 - 2000) a pummelling pre-millennial goth influenced hardcore act, and Clicks (2001) - a moody drum and synth led 4 piece (featuring the talents of Daniel O'Sullivan - Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses/Guapo and Tom Hirst, late of Cleckhuddersfax). Kit and Marie began writing under House of Dolls while living in Berlin in 2002 and after relocating to Marie's hometown of Christchurch in 2004 the addition of ex-Leper Ballet drummer Kris Taylor and bassist Fraser Austin fused the loose ends - h/c intensity, angular intonation, hypnotic danciness. We have a 2 studio and 2 live mp3's up. at http://www.myspace.com/houseofdollsfanclub
Saturday 24th June -
6-9pm Darkenss Festival
10pm Not with You, Not Quite Right and Guests
Sunday 25 June - 8pm
Jeff Henderson, Nigel Patterson and Jo Dobson
Tuesday 27 June - 8pm
Acoustic Pioneers
Happy
corner Vivian and Tory Streets
PO Box 9069
Wellington
New Zealand
+64 4 384 1965
www.happy.net.nz
www.myspace.com/happybar
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69.55
MASSEY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS
Litmus Research Initiative
Returning Services
Criss-crossing the traditional roles of artist, writer and designer, Returning Services offers new relationships of influence between these disciplines through the staging of a collaborative project between artist and Massey University School of Fine Arts lecturer Karin van Roosmalen, City Gallery Wellington curator and writer Sarah Farrar and designer and Designworks Enterprise IG employee Paul Johnson.
After first meeting while working together on Karin's exhibition project Flying at a Slant at the City Gallery's Michael Hirschfeld Gallery in early 2004, Karin, Sarah and Paul have since developed Returning Services, a collaborative publication and installation project culminating from June 21 - July 4 at the DesignWorks Enterprise IG offices in Central Wellington.
The making of a publication has been central to Returning Services, acting as both an active component of the installation and as a document of the collaborative process to date. Inverting more traditional exhibition methods, Returning Services treats the form of a publication as generative rather than responsive, allowing an investigative collusion between print and installation. Situated in Paul's place of work and a space often used for meetings and workshop sessions, Returning Services also skilfully draws in the professional and social environments relevant to the project, offering a further set of associations.
Copies of the publication Returning Services will be available from DesignWorks Enterprise IG, City Gallery Wellington and The Litmus Research Initiative.
Returning Services opens on Tuesday 20 June at 6 p.m. in the DesignWorks Enterprise IG offices, Level 5, Hope Gibbons Building, 7-11 Dixon St, Wellington, and is open to the public from June 21 - July 4.
Returning Services is proudly supported by Litmus, Massey University and DesignWorks Enterprise IG. Thanks too to City Gallery Wellington.
For further information, images or to arrange an interview with the participants please contact Louise Menzies, Litmus Projects Manager, on tel: 04 801 2794 x6197 or via email: L.C.Menzies@massey.ac.nz
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69.56
AUCKLAND IDEA
The New Theatre Initiative is building a new theatre at 305 Queen Street - right in the heart of Auckland's performing arts district. It will be a fully flexible theatre for the professional performing arts and will seat between 350 - 460 people. This theatre will be a venue for hire - open to a huge variety of performing artists. It will be an awesome place where you can work, where you can play, or where you can just hang out in the bar. To find out more check out www.nti.org.nz
This will be a theatre for you, and we want you to be a part of its success.
You are invited to an open industry meeting to be held on:
Thursday 29th June and repeated on Thursday 13th July
6pm at the Classic - 321 Queen Street
At the meeting Justin Lewis and Andrew Caisley, Co-Chairs of NTi, will put forward plans on:
The site and concept designs of the building
Who will own the new theatre and how it will be run
Take this chance to find out what's happening and ask your questions.
So far:
We have raised over half the money.
We have a confirmed site.
We have draft design plans.
We plan to open in 2008
By the end of this year:
There will be a final set of design plans
The first Board will be appointed.
Now we'd like to find out what you think.
Now we'd like to find out what you think.
Come along, get the facts and contribute your thoughts.
Please pass this on to anyone else in the performing arts industry and we look forward to seeing you there!
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69.57
TOUGH ACT
Already on the small screen and gaining positive attention - at least from reviewer Jane Clifton - is Stuart McKenzie's documentary series Tough Act, which follows the lives of the students from the 2005 intake into Toi Whaakari: NZ Drama School, as they embark on their first year of a three-year acting course with dreams of making it big. The series screens on Saturday afternoon at 3.30 pm on TV2. Clifton is unimpressed with the scheduling, describing it as 'gobsmacking' in its stupidity. 'Shamingly for TVNZ,' she writes, 'this is just the latest in a long line of good local programmes wasted in hopeless time slots, and it's almost certainly the highest quality of recent casualties.' Stuart McKenzie completed an MA (Page) at Victoria in 1998. Catch the programme - which naturally also features Miranda Harcourt, acting teacher at Toi Whakaari and McKenzie's partner - before it's gone. Jane Clifton's full review is at:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3677568a1869,00.html
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69.58
CHIVALRY AND ALL THAT
Medieval pageant soon to be staged at Wellington's Town Hall.
The evening will take the form of a Medieval Ball, with dancing for all, accompanied by a medieval dance band. The dancing will be interspersed with floor-shows including a medieval Mystery Play directed by Victoria University Professor Kathryn Walls, medieval musical numbers from professional musicians, and dance demonstrations led by Jennifer Shennan. Food and drink will be available from 'taverns' around the perimeter of the hall, and the audience will have the opportunity to try their hands (or rather feet) at medieval dance steps as well as see them expertly performed by students of Historic Dance from the Theatre School at Victoria University. Proceeds will go towards the restoration of the Maxwell Fernie Organ, at St Mary of the Angels. The Feast of Fools: A Pageant of Medieval Music and Dance for the Midwinter Solstice. Wellington Town Hall, Saturday 24th June 2006, from 7:00pm.Tickets $35, only available in advance from Ticketek (booking fee applies). For more information see
http://www.feastoffools.co.nz/
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69.59
MUSIC TEACHERS
World Music Academy, Wellington is currently expanding and needs more music teachers. If you think you would like to an extra job teaching piano/keyboard/guitar/drums
please send us your CV via email to :
worldmusic@xtra.co.nz
Attention : Irene
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69.60
AND ONE MORE THING FROM CRAFTWERK
It's all about the badges baby...
Thanks to Badge King
http://www.badgeking.co.nz
we are able to do very limited runs of badges for you/your band/your cat. And you'll be helping raise funds and spread the love for Craftwerk.
For a set-up charge of $2 and 80 cents a badge (work it out people that means if you sell badges for $2 you get 100+% mark up!!) we'll make up some 32mm badges for you. If you have friends who want badges made, or strangers who want badges made, let them know, the more money we make from this the more geeked out Craftwerk will be.
Artwork needs to be in by Friday the 23rd of June
This can either be done by dropping off your printed images into Juniper in Newtown or Dandylion in Leftbank Arcade.
Or if you want us to print them off for you, email the artwork to craft@craftwerk.co.nz ( badges will then be $1 each including colour printing)
There's an extremely basic template here - http://www.craftwerk.co.nz/badgetemp.html
This is a super price and wont be happening again, so make sure you get your shit together in time, it's well worth the effort.
We need to make the badge order well in advance so even if you don't have the artwork sussed, please let us know how many you would like by Monday at the latest.
-Heather and Sue.
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GO WILD
Wild Creations artist residencies applications open Deadline August 31 "Wild Creations residencies are a unique opportunity for artists to really focus on their art in some of the most beautiful areas in New Zealand,"
The six-week residencies are open to practising artists in any artform or cultural tradition, and are chosen from one of over 20 significant conservation sites throughout New Zealand. The Department of Conservation hosts the artists during their residencies and Creative New Zealand provides a stipend of $5000, plus up to $2000 for travel and materials, to each artist. Artists selected for the residencies must be New Zealand citizens or permanent residents.
For more information about the residencies, artists should contact Anastasia Turnbull at the Department of Conservation (04 471 3182 or
aturnbull@doc.govt.nz) or Helaina Keeley at Creative New Zealand (04 498
0702)
helainak@creativenz.govt.nz
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CARIOCA FLICKS
Dear Friend (s) of Brazil,
It is a great pleasure to invite you to the fourth movie of our 2006 Season of Movie at the Embassy, which will be shown on Wednesday, 21st June, at 6pm (refreshments from 5:30pm).
This month, we have revised our program schedule and instead of showing Pixote, Survival of the Weakest, as previously announced, we will be showing The Owner of the Story (2005) directed by Daniel Filho, with Marieta Severo, Antônio Fagundes, Rodrigo Santoro, Débora Falabella, Giulia Gam, among others. It's the first timeThe Owner of the Story will be shown in New Zealand.
"Pixote" will return to our programme in the near future.
The Owner of the Story, a romantic comedy, was chosen to open the Rio Cine Festival in 2004. The movie is an adaptation of a play written by João Falcão. The Brazilian theatre production of the original play was critically acclaimed by the audience during the two years it ran.
It tells us the story of a middle-aged woman, Carolina. It is through confrontation and dialogue with her young 18-year-old self that Carolina, now 32 years older, revives the dreams of her past and the possibilities of what might have been her own history had she followed other paths, known other lovers and passions. Now mature, Carolina will fully live the privilege of analysing and changing her own story and re-finding herself through what she was, what she was not and what she could have been - alongside or far away from the great love of her life.
Read more about the movie:
http://www.brazilianartists.net/events/bca_cineclub/index.htm
http://www.brazilianfilmfestival.com/9/scripts/films/adonadahistoria.asp
The movies (in DVD format) are shown here at the Embassy (10 Brandon Street - Deloitte House, Level 9, Wellington), on our 52'' TV screen. They are in Portuguese with English subtitles.
Since we do not boast a special room (auditorium-like) for viewing, and since the space is very limited (35 seats only) this free DVD screening will have to follow the rule of "first come, first served". This means that if you are interested, you need to call and reserve your seat.
PLEASE NOTE: ACCESS TO THE EMBASSY WILL BE RESTRICTED TO THOSE WHOSE NAME APPEARS ON THE RESERVATIONS LIST. FOR SECURITY REASONS, YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO PRESENT PHOTOGRAPHIC IDENTIFICATION BEFORE ENTERING THE EMBASSY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING!
For reservations, please call (04) 473 3516 and ask to speak with Lígia Verdi or Helen Tortoza.
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69.63
VALUE OF CULTURE
'Can cultural values be written into educational programmes?
The opinions of heritage
professionals in
Aotearoa New Zealand'.
Seminar presented by Jeanette Atkinson
This presentation will give an overview of PhD research (AHRC funded) carried out since September 2004 into cultural values in educational programmes available to heritage professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand. The aim of the research is to determine how heritage specialists, who are responsible for the display and conservation of material culture, museum educators and university staff teaching on cultural heritage programmes, were trained, and to what extent their educational programmes included an awareness of differing cultural values. The research also aims to investigate whether it is possible to write educational programmes that incorporate cultural values. The talk will examine the background to the research, outline the methodology used and give an indication of preliminary findings.
Time: 4.10pm - 5.30pm
Date: Wednesday 21st June, 2006
Venue: Stout Research Centre
12 Waiteata Road
Victoria University of Wellington,
Kelburn Campus
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69.64
OPENING SOON AT THE ARTS CENTRE GALLERY
Viewpoint: Varied Standards of Accuracy - Rossiter & Thomas
From Friday 23 June, the Wellington Arts Centre Gallery will host an exhibition by artists Sarah Thomas and Karina Rossiter that explores the function and dysfunction of mapping.
Karina says the exhibition, Viewpoint: Varied Standards of Accuracy, aims to show that reading a map of an area is quite a different experience to being in it.
"If you look at a road map of Wellington City you will have no idea whatsoever of the rugged typography of the city. You may as well be looking at a map of low-lying Amsterdam."
The exhibition features large-scale drawings and a sculptured landscape.
As part of the experience, the public is invited to take part in an interactive mapping project. If people register their name they will be given a map kit to take on their travels. This will form the foundation for a future exhibition.
Sarah and Karina began working on the project more than a year ago after they began swapping ideas on paper. This continued when Sarah was overseas and led to regular exchanges on the topic of maps.
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AND COMING SOON TO ILOTT GREEN
www.softasstone.org.nz
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NEXT NEW FILM NIGH AT THE ARTS CENTRE
July 6 at 6.00pm
Curious? Send message to
arts@wcc.govt.nz
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69.67
DOWN SOUTH
South Coast Gallery
Pre s e n t s
IZZAT Art "ILLUMINATION"
by IZZAT Design
Join us on Saturday 24 June (12pm - 6pm) to meet with the Artists
(Simon Hames, Jake Yocum, Hamish Wain, Chris Streeter and Tony Drawbridge)
Exhibition runs from 25 June - 16 July 2006
302 The Esplanade, Island Bay, Wellington
T: (04) 971 8151 E: info@southcoastgallery.co.nz
Gallery Hours: W E D - S U N 1 0 . 3 0 a m - 6 p m
If you wish not to continue receiving electronic invitations, please let me know.
Hope to see you some time during the exhibition.
Regards,
Cameron Drawbridge
cdrawbridge@hotmail.com
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69.68
ASIAN INSPIRED
Artist residencies in Asia open for applications Established New Zealand artists across all artforms are invited to apply for residencies in New Delhi and Beijing, offered annually by Creative New Zealand in partnership with the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
The two three-month residencies are the Sanskriti Residency in New Delhi, hosted by the Sanskriti Foundation of India, and the Red Gate Residency, based at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing, China.
The Arts Board of Creative New Zealand will cover the cost of accommodation and facilities, and provide artist stipends of $10,000 each while they are in residence. The Asia New Zealand Foundation will meet the cost of return airfares.
Both residencies are aimed at established artists who wish to pursue projects related to the location or the facilities of the host organisation. Priority will also be given to applicants who show an appreciation of the environment and culture of the residency's country.
Beijing's Red Gate Residency
www.redgategallery.com
is a well-established residency programme and offers studios and accommodation. It also has access to the facilities of the Beijing Arts Academy.
The Sanskriti Residency is hosted by the Sanskriti Foundation of India
www.sanskritifoundation.org
The accommodation and facilities for this residency are based at the Sanskriti Foundation's Kendra campus on the outskirts of New Delhi.
The deadline for applications for Beijing's Red Gate Gallery and Sanskriti residency is 5pm, Friday 30 June 2006. Artists are expected to take up the three-month residency in New Delhi between October 2006 and June 2007 and the residency in Beijing from April to June 2007.
For application forms and guidelines please contact an Assistant Arts Adviser on Tel: 04-498 0702 or Email:
assistant.arts@creativenz.govt.nz
or visit the resources section of Creative New Zealand's website
www.creativenz.govt.nz
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HELPING HAND
Do you have filming skills, or know someone who does?
Volunteers are wanted for filming - Tuesday 4th & 11th July.
Longview Rest Home in conjunction with Sing a new Song Academy are running a Linkage project and are wanting to film the results.
During the school Sing a new Song Academy teach children how to write and compose music. The children are then invited into the Longview rest home to work with elders in creating lyrics for the new songs. The resulting work will be part of a series of concerts and the production of a DVD.
This project needs someone to help them with filming over two days - Tuesday 4th and Tuesday 11th July. Longview rest home has a video camera available to use (does stills and dvd format). To the volunteer Longview can offer a certificate and a letter, either for marketing purposes or for use in a student's CV.
For more information contact:
Marlene Bowles
Recreation Manager
Longview Rest Home
Phone 04 232 6199
Email bowles@paradise.net.nz
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69.70
TAKE REFUGE
World Refugee Day 2006: Keeping the flame of hope alive
Throughout their long, daunting journey from oppression and persecution to asylum and protection, and eventually to a place they can call home, refugees show incredible strength, courage and determination. Their journey is a dangerous and arduous one and every day spent in exile is a day too long.
In every step of their journey refugees carry with them an unshakable, unrelenting hope. By hanging on to their hopes for basic survival, sustenance and protection, and for the chance to one day rebuild their lives, refugees defy all odds.
On World Refugee Day, 20 June, we remember the millions of refugees trying to pick up the pieces of once-peaceful lives. As different as they are from each other, one thing connects them all: hope for a better future and a chance to restore lasting peace to their lives.
World Refugee Day 2006 will be celebrated in the Wellington region by an afternoon of entertainment and food at the Petone Settlers' Museum offices in Britannia St, Petone (right by the Petone library). There'll be activities for kids, displays to look at, music and performance from different refugee communities and some delicious food. Everyone is welcome, free entry. Events begin at 2.30pm and will run till 5pm.
Displaced
'My life began in a very non-traditional way and things have continued
along those lines ever since.'
Over the past two decades, Somalian journalist and photographer Amina Daud Timayare has documented the experience of the people of the Horn of Africa - Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Many of her images have captured people going on with their lives in this dynamic and volatile part of the world, at the same time as they experiencing displacement within their
own national borders. The UNHCR estimates there are some 25 million internally displaced people in the world; outnumbering 'refugees' for the first time since 1951.
Amina has now settled in Auckland, and uses her experience to assist refugees, including people from Somalia, deal with integration into New Zealand society.
This special exhibition of images at the Settlers gallery on Britannia Street (next to Petone Library) opens on World Refugee Day, at 2.30pm on 20 June and then will be open Mondays to Fridays 10am to 2pm and by arrangement until 6 August.
Denise Williams
Director Petone Settlers Museum
c/o Hutt City Council
Private Bag 31912
Lower Hutt
New Zealand
Direct: 04 560 3528 Fax 04 568 8933
denise.williams@huttcity.govt.nz
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.petonesettlers.org.nz/" \o "http://www.petonesettlers.org.nz/" _www.petonesettlers.org.nz_
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MORE FROM ROAR!
ROAR! gallery is making some chanes
One of them is our new , exciting, shiny and new Public Programme, featuring free talks, workshops, live music and interactive art events. We have decided that there are so many exciting things going on around here that we should get you, the lovely public, in to get involved. We also want to give artists showing with us the opportunity to talk about their work, or listen to other people respond to it, and run workshops to get people more involved, thinking, listening and making! Just send an email to
roargallery@paradise.net.nz
We are also currently inviting proposals for our 2007 programme. Please email to
roargallery@paradise.net.nz
to receive guidelines for making a proposal and some info on us and what we do. We invite submissions from artists in all media, including video and music, as we are currently working on transforming our entrance into a musical corridor with potential for video installations (we have a big white wall and we want your art projected on it).
We look forward to hearing from you!
Sian Torrington
Gallery Manager
ROAR! gallery
55 Abel Smith St
1st Floor
Above Real Groovy
Wellington
PO Box 9720
P - 04 3857602
F - 04 3828632
roargallery@paradise.net.nz
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69.72
PACIFIC ACCLAIM
Pacific Arts Committee seeks nominations for Arts Pasifika Awards 2006
The Pacific Arts Committee of Creative New Zealand is seeking nominations for the Arts Pasifika Awards 2006, which celebrate Pacific artists across a range of artforms and career stages. The closing date for nominations is 5pm, Friday 30 June 2006.
The recipients of the Arts Pasifika Awards 2006 will be announced at a special ceremony in Wellington in November. Marilyn Kohlhase, Chair of the Pacific Arts Committee, encourages all New Zealanders to nominate Pacific artists whom they feel deserve recognition.
"Pacific arts make a valuable contribution to New Zealand's international reputation, and the richness and diversity of the arts in this country," Ms Kohlhase says. "The annual Arts Pasifika Awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate that contribution."
The Arts Pasifika Awards 2006 offer six awards. These are:
Senior Pacific Artists' Award ($7000) recognises the contribution of a senior Pacific artist in maintaining or developing his or her artform in New Zealand. Last year's recipient was Auckland musician Opetaia Foa'i (Tokelau/Tuvalu/Samoa)
Pacific Heritage Arts Award ($5000) recognises an individual artist or cultural group who has made a major contribution to maintaining, reviving or promoting a Pacific heritage artform in New Zealand. Last year's recipient was Auckland traditional master artist Mafi Malanga XIII (Tonga)
Pacific Innovation and Excellence Award ($5000) recognises an established Pacific artist or group who has demonstrated innovation and excellence in their artform. Last year's recipient was Auckland multi-media artist John Ioane (Samoa)
Salamander Gallery Award for Emerging Pacific Visual Artists ($3000) recognises an emerging Pacific artist showing promise in the field of visual arts. Last year's recipient was Auckland sculptor Maui 'Ofamo'oni (Tonga)
Iosefa Enari Memorial Award ($3000) recognises the contribution of the late Iosefa Enari to the arts and in particular his pioneering role in Pacific opera. This study/travel award supports the development of Pacific opera singers. Last year's recipient was Invercargill opera singer Ramonda Te Maiharoa-Taleni (Samoa, Waitaha)
Emerging Pacific Artists' Award ($3000) recognises an emerging Pacific artist or group showing promise in their chosen artform. Last year's recipient was Wellington writer Miria George (Rarotonga, Atiu-Cook Islands).
For nomination forms please contact Anton Carter (Tel: 04-498 0729 Email: antonc@creativenz.govt.nz). You can also download the nomination forms from the resources section of Creative New Zealand's website http://www.creativenz.govt.nz
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69.73
THE BEAUTY OF WIND (FARMS)
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/014344.html
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69.74
END OF FUN IN SAN FRAN
What's happening to all the fun?
That's what Anthony Jacobs wants to understand. He's standing in the damp grass of Sharon Meadow at the eastern end of Golden Gate Park, not far from his home on 17th Avenue. A soccer ball beside his foot and long, black dreads cascading down his back, he reminisces about the two-day multicultural festival "Reggae in the Park," which used to take place there.
"Man, I wish someone would bring that back. It's a shame. All my friends miss it," he says. The two-day benefit for Global Exchange and its promoter, Events West, left town in 2004, with $62,000 in overdue fees owed to the city. Increases in fines and permits, a more restrictive sound policy, and harsher penalties from the city's Recreation and Park Department make it unlikely reggae will return.
"People really liked that event," Jacobs laments, adding that it was a beautiful thing to see different races and people from all over the Bay Area together in one place. "It's the cultured events that keep the spirit of San Francisco going. Not too many events like that anymore."
San Francisco, long famed for its freedom of expression and encouragement of art and entertainment, is no longer making a line item for fun in the budget. Rec and Park is upping fees from the Carousel to the Civic Center. The Port Commission will be voting for similar special-events fee increases for the city's waterfront on May 23. The San Francisco Police Department, facing a $1.5 million budget shortfall, wants to charge more for its services. Events that have become annual traditions for San Francisco - SF Pride, Carnaval, Comedy Day, the How Weird Street Faire, the Haight Ashbury Street Fair, the North Beach Festival - are having a hard time putting on the show this year. Some even say they're ready to call it quits.
The crackdown - driven by everything from NIMBYism to fiscal austerity measures by city officials - has been below most people's radar, either at the administrative level or before small commissions. But they're starting to add up to a serious assault on fun in San Francisco.
Read more
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=643
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69.75
END OF FUNDING IN PERTH
Exit funding promises, followed by bemusement
By Victoria Laurie in The Australian
May 25, 2006
WHILE the West Australian theatre fraternity looks forward to a new performing arts home in 2008, some are wondering what kind of theatre it will contain if dire predictions for arts funding turn out to be true.
Today, WA Arts Minister Sheila McHale will give a media and industry briefing on the implications of Treasurer Eric Ripper's 2006-07 state budget, delivered two weeks ago. The curious delay in detailing its content confirms what people have feared: the mineral bonanza that has delivered a record $2 billion surplus and a healthy budget (which Ripper has triumphantly titled "Building on the Boom") has effectively delivered nothing new to the arts. In fact, the word arts has appeared almost nowhere in the Carpenter Government's plethora of budget releases, and in only a few pages of the budget's thick tome.
One announcement is no surprise: the cost of Perth's new performing arts venue in Northbridge has blown out from $42 million to $66 million, and requires an injection of extra funds.
The rest is a rehash of existing commitments: a capital works budget of $131.18 million over four years to build the new venue, renovate substandard venues and maintain them.
But there is no general increase to arts funding, other than a $500,000 boost for museum programs that is to be thinly spread across four museums over two years.
The most noticeable absence in the budget is any mention of the theatre funding strategy, an ambitious two-stage commitment "to the sustainable development of the professional theatre sector" that McHale announced with great fanfare early last year as part of Labor's election campaign. The idea was to give wide-ranging support to theatre companies and playwrights, a production office to support independent work, and upgrades for several existing venues, with an initial $1million to administer the program. WA's playwrights consortium, Stages, and the Performing Arts Centre Society, for example, were promised an increase of $20,000 and $60,000 respectively each year in stages one and two, beginning this year. But with no mention of the strategy in the 2006-07 budget, the question is: What has happened to stage two?
Read more
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19243353-16947,00.html
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69.76
KEYBOARDS FOR CUBA
U.S. piano tuner doctors instruments in Cuba
By Anita Snow
Associated Press
Published May 26, 2006
HAVANA -- When Benjamin Treuhaft first visited Cuba in 1993, he found that aging American cars weren't the only clunkers on the island. Years of neglect, humidity and termites were ravaging the dwindling piano population.
Thirteen years later, the American piano tuner has helped send 237 old pianos donated by Americans to the communist-run island, filling a void in a musical country.
"Most of the pianos here were Soviet-made, many of them from Moscow and Estonia, so they weren't that great to begin with," Treuhaft said. "Then, they met the Cuban termites. And then, they met the Cuban pianists, who are great, but strong, and can really destroy an instrument."
Treuhaft keeps returning to survey donated instruments and tune and restore others, striking an insistent chord against the U.S. trade embargo. After nearly 20 trips to the island -- some without U.S. approval -- the jocular former hippie who sports a bandanna on his head and likes to tune pianos while barefoot is now a personality in some Cuban music circles.
After Treuhaft repaired Jorge Lopez Marin's dilapidated Russian piano, the Havana composer wrote a traditional Cuban song for him called "El Medico de Piano" -- or "The Piano Doctor." The tune is now widely performed by a popular women's musical group.
"What he has done is very important for the music community in Cuba," said Julia Diaz, a Cuban piano tuner who has known Treuhaft for 12 years. "He is very much beloved here."
Read more
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0605250350may26,1,5826952.story?coll=chi-leisuretempo-hed
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69.77
NEW BRITISH DANCE
Will Tuckett, the Royal Ballet's greatest dame, tells Judith Mackrell why he's bringing an Oscar Wilde ghost story to the stage
Thursday May 25, 2006 in The Guardian
Every two or three years, British ballet comes under attack from critics who claim it's being far outdanced by its international rivals. British teachers, it is said, lack rigour, British dancers lack focus, and British style, in comparison with the uniform perfection bred by the Kirov or the Paris Opéra, is a sadly mongrel affair. But while our ballet may not conform to the standards some desire, there is much to be said for a system that's inclusive, even eccentric enough to nurture a talent like Will Tuckett.
By his own admission, when Tuckett graduated from the Royal Ballet School in 1988, his gangly body, sharp blue eyes and slightly cussed attitude were hardly the attributes of a future classical prince. Yet while other companies might not have given him a second glance, Tuckett was fast-tracked into Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet (now the Birmingham Royal Ballet), and then the Royal. His obvious asset was a lively, imaginative intelligence ideal for dancing the villains, dames and comic sidekicks so essential to Britain's traditional story ballets. Over the past 18 years, Tuckett's repertory - from his psychopathic Tybalt to his bosomy, muddled Widow Simone in La Fille Mal Gardée - has been touched by genius.
Read more
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1782512,00.html
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SEND SOMETHING GOOD
The New Zealand International Arts Festival seeking proposals Please note, this has been abbreviated, for full info, I would suggest contacting them before submitting a prop. - thx KqT Applicants must:
a. be professional mid career and senior artists with a proven track record in the industry b. must have an exciting new idea or concept in any area of performance art that would work in a festival environment c. if selected, be able to present their idea, in performance form, to an audience of Directors from the festivals and other arts producers and presenters.
The Process:
1. Each artist wishing to be considered should send a brief outline/proposal to the New Zealand International Arts Festival. We are not looking for a comprehensive document but a one or two page outline of the project idea.
Please include biographies of any relevant artistic personnel involved in the work. You may also like to speak to one of the other festival Artistic Directors about your idea.
2. All concepts will be copied to all the Festival Directors of the Festivals listed above.
3. The Festival Directors will then meet in early July to select 12 to 16 ideas from the proposals received.
4. Selected proposals will receive a small amount of seed-funding towards developing their concept for Show & Tell in November 2006.
Proposals must be received by Friday 30 June, 2006.
For Further Information or if you wish to discuss your proposal with your local director please contact:
- Guy Boyce, Christchurch Arts Festival, g.boyce@artsfestival.co.nz
- Roger King, Taranaki Festival of the Arts, roger.king@xtra.co.nz
- Nicholas McBryde, Otago Festival of the Arts info@otagofestival.co.nz
- David Malacari or Mark Burlace, Auckland Festival, info@aucklandfestival.co.nz
- Philip Tremewan, Tauranga Arts Festival, Festival of Colour Wanaka tremewan@central.co.nz
- Lissa Twomey or David Inns, New Zealand International Arts Festival, nzfestival@festival.co.nz
- Annabel Norman, Nelson Arts Festival annabel.norman@ncc.govt.nz Please send all proposals to:
Show & Tell
New Zealand International Arts Festival
PO Box 10 -113
Wellington
New Zealand
or Attn Artistic Director
nzfestival@festival.co.nz
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69.79
POD IT
NZ Music Podcasts - The Voice Booth
If you have an idea for a podcast you'd like The Voice Booth to consider producing, then email us at podcast@thevoicebooth.com
Info at
http://www.thevoicebooth.com/podcasting.htm
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69.80
AWARD TIME
Nominations open for NZ Music Awards Info at _HYPERLINK
www.nzmusicawards.co.nz
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69.81
GUNSLING3R
Rach J, Marsh, Kiran_x.
THISTLE HALL
Opening Night- 3rd July 5:30 pm
4th- 12th July open daily 9:30-5pm
Gunsling3r collects three very different stencil artists who each have a unique approach to the medium. Together they cross the realms between design and fine art while retaining an urbanised aesthetic.
For a long time the stencil process has assisted the registration of design, reducing specifics to create the bold identifiable image. Because of this nature street artists have found it a successful tool for getting their ideas across.
As part of the graffiti family, stencils illustrate wit, social commentary and creative visual studies while retaining an urbanised attitude, which is no longer restricted to political street messages.
Rach J, Marsh and Kiran_x explore and extend what is already considered from local street art to bring their own unique view on what the medium offers. From air brush to aerosol and graphic design to abstraction, Gunsling3r presents the latest new forum of stencil art to Wellington city.
Rach J
Taking erotica images and applying them to traditional painting surfaces in non-traditional ways allows Rach J to present them in new context- exploring questions of sex, power and paint.
Marsh
With hopes of establishing a series of images recognisable as signifying New Zealand's ever-growing street-art scene, Marsh embarks on combining in his work, 'alternative' NZ icons together with his own method of imagery. Becoming increasingly sick of your typical NZ images, he focuses on using what he feels to be un-appreciated NZ icons - the likes of the weta and the yellow mini - into this somewhat suspicious 'tank-girl-esque' character image. Colourful, comical, busy and with an explosive attitude in his work, Marsh sets out to enlighten bystanders with what he feels they have never seen but need to.
Kiran_x
The function of Kiran_x is to broker urban aesthetics into elaborate funk systems. The characters of Kiran_x act as a type of schizophrenic identity: forged in city texture and frozen in graphic explosion.
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69.82
LOOK AT THIS, KIDS
http://www.square-eyes.co.nz/
Square Eyes | New Zealand Children's Film Foundation
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69.83
YOUR WELLINGTON
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/mywellington/arts-culture/index.htm
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69.84
STOP HERE
The Whistle Stop Tour "On Training", guided by Madeline McNamara, offers women theatre practitioners a free 2-part workshop that will help you to set goals, identify your training needs and create a Plan to meet those needs.
Coupled with an informal informational presentation about Magdalena Aotearoa and the Magdalena Project, this is an inspiring, provocative and fun event. And thanks to CLANZ, it's free!
"Immensely empowering and practical"
Christchurch participant
" ... a highly invaluable opportunity to hone in on where one is at with one's practice and where one needs to go - an opportunity we rarely give ourselves, especially amidst our busy and fragmented lives as women." Dunedin participant
The workshop is given in two 2-3 hour sessions, offering you:
* practical exercises to help identify your training needs and how to meet them;
* focused time to set goals and create a written training plan;
* the opportunity to network with local women theatre practitioners;
* information about Magdalena Aotearoa and the Magdalena Project.
June 17-18: Wellington
Saturday 10am-1pm, and Sunday 11am- 2pm
Venue: Island Bay Surf Club - Meeting Room
email magdalen@actrix.co.nz
or phone Helen Jamieson, 04 934 9605
http://magdalena.actrix.co.nz/taw.html
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69.85
REGISTER NOW
Dance Your Socks Off! Registrations Open!
19 March 2006 - 01 September 2006
We invite you to participate in this year's Dance Your Socks Off! Your involvement in previous years has meant that this month long celebration of dance has grown enormously every year and we are looking forward to yet another exciting festival. We have some changes to the way Dance Your Socks Off! will be run. As in previous years the festival will run from 1 - 30 September 2006.
Objectives
Our objectives remain the same and form the basis of the vision for Dance Your Socks Off! Celebrating the diversity of dance Increasing participation in dance Increasing dance spectatorship and appreciation.
What we provide
We co-ordinate all umbrella promotion and publicity including posters, booklets, library displays, a banner and newspaper advertising and the dyso.feelinggreat.co.nz website. We can offer advice and support about your production. Wellington City Council has good relationships with many venues that can assist with negotiations. We also have some resources that can be made available to your group, such as staging and PA equipment.
Funding
If you need funding for a project that you are going to do as part of Dance Your Socks Off! you may need to apply for a grant. Wellington City Council has very recently announced changes to Community Grants that commence from July 2006. We have become aware of how these changes impact on funding available through this avenue in time for Dance Your Socks Off! Creative Communities Wellington Local Funding Scheme closes on Friday 31 March at 5pm. We do realise that this does not allow you a great deal of time to think about your project and to apply for funding. Please contact me (Mallika) and I will try to assist you as much as possible with your application. Arts and Cultural Projects, Maori Arts Projects and Community Festival Grants (need to be a suitable legal entity such as a charitable trust or incorporated society to apply for this) close Friday 31 March at 5pm. Venue subsidies. More information and application forms are available online at http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/grants/index.html Although there is a tight deadline for the above grants some groups may be eligible to apply for other types of grants such as pub charities, some of which have fixed deadlines and others that can be applied for any time. I am happy to help you through this process and work with you individually to try to find solutions to any funding issues. The above link to Wellington City Council grants contains links to other funding sources.
General
Dance Your Socks Off! registrations of interest If you are planning to perform or run workshops between 1 - 30 September please complete the registration form attached and return to me by 28 April 2006. This is to give us an idea of how many participants are interested in this year's Dance Your Socks Off! and to assist our planning. We are happy to offer advice as requested by each group and if your plans change please keep in contact with us. Other specific projects are outlined below, if you are interested in these please send submissions in addition to a completed registration form.
Dance Your Socks Off! at BATs
BATs theatre is accepting proposals for inclusion in this year's festival, proposals are welcome until Friday 7 April 2006, please contact James at 04 802 4176 or james @bats.co.nz. Courtenay Central Dance Festival We are planning to open this year's Dance Your Socks Off! with an exciting showcase at Courtenay Central.
Dance Your Socks Off at Capital E
Proposals for shows by, and/or suitable for 2 - 12 year-olds will be considered for the Capital E DYSO season. Town Hall or Illot Theatre venue subsidy Dance Your Socks Off! can provide free use of either the Town Hall (I night) or Illot Theatre (2 nights) to one group for a dance, dance performance or workshop during the festival. Please remember the subsidy covers venue only and does not apply to any production costs, security or staffing. You can still apply for grants to help with these other costs. There are limited nights available at the Town Hall or Capital E in September. Please bear in mind the Wellington City Council grants deadline of Friday 31 March 2006.
If you have any proposals in mind please submit to me (Mallika) in writing by 7 April 2006. Your proposal should include: Your great idea, who it is aimed at and what you are trying to achieve What you are planning, including staffing requirements, venue requirements, resources required, marketing plans and budget I am happy to help with any enquiries you may have about this. We are also negotiating with other possible partners, such as Wellington City Council recreation centres, the Wellington Arts Centre, Te Papa, The Film Archives, St James Theatre and The Opera House.
If you are interested in projects in any of these venues please contact us to discuss your idea. We are very excited about the possibilities and opportunities to showcase dance and encourage Wellingtonians to get dancing! We look forward to hearing from you.
Mallika Krishnamurthy
Community Recreation Programmer
Recreation Wellington
Wellington City Council
Phone: (04) 801 3564
Fax: (04) 801 3635
mallika.krishnamurthy@wcc.govt.nz
http://www.feelinggreat.co.nz/arts/event/dance/7751.php
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DANCE ASSEMBLY
The 1st International Council for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport and Dance (ICHPER-SD) Oceania Congress is to be held in Wellington, October 1-4, 2006.
Hosted by Physical Education New Zealand (PENZ) the congress theme will be Fusion Down-under; Recipes for Movement: Challenging perspectives and constructing alliances. It will explore aspects of health, physical education, recreation, sport and dance from an integrated perspective.
For information on Keynote speakers, submitting papers or registering for the congress visit:
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.ichper-sd2006.org.nz/" __www.ichper-sd2006.org.nz_
The 17th conference of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) will be held in Canberra, Australia from 24-27 October, 2007
It is the first time the conference has been held in the southern hemisphere and over 400 delegates from the USA, Europe, the UK, the Asia Pacific region and Australia are expected to attend.
The conference explores all aspects of dance medicine and science with a view to enhancing dancers' performance, health and well-being. There is a strong focus on injury prevention, psychology, nutrition, biomechanics of dance technique and surgical intervention.
The conference will be held at the Australian Institute of Sport, which will facilitate a two-way exchange of new research and information. Both dance and sport have always placed a great emphasis on preparation and there are many similarities in the physical and mental challenges faced by their elite performers.
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DANCE FORUM
From a forum held by DANZ at The National Dance Conference - Tuanui Whakamaru Dance Canopy 05 in July 2005 It was established that there is a need for a national Community Dance Network in New Zealand.
It is felt that this part of the professional sector needs greater visibility and that there needs to be more clarity and discussion on the nature of Community Dance practice. Community Dance needs to be known more widely as an important and particular method of dance practise and a career option.
As part of its commitment to Community Dance, DANZ held a weekend workshop led by Petra Kuppers with New Zealand Community Dance practitioners in February 2006. Petra Kuppers is Associate Professor of Performance Studies at Bryant University in Rode Island, USA and was the Caroline Plummer Dance Fellow (Community Dance) at the University of Otago in 2005/06.
DANZ is currently planning a Community Dance section on this web site, providing information on Community Dance, models of good practise and New Zealand projects.
To join the Community Dance Network contact DANZ on 04 801 9885 or email danz@danz.org.nz
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PUBLIC ART IN YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
http://wellington.govt.nz/plans/policies/publicart/index.html
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TELL ABOUT WELLY
http://www.gridskipper.com/travel/wellington/pitch-your-burg-wellington-triumphant-168590.php
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SCULPTED WELLY
http://www.sculpture.org.nz
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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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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
04-385-1904
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ENDNOTE 1 - Talking to Our Culture
WCC Maori Community Hui
3 May 2006 - Te Papa, Level 3
Eric Vaughn Holowacz
Warm greetings and good evening. My name is Eric Holowacz, and I am the Arts Programmes & Services Manager for Council. I am truly honoured to be her among so many friends at the Maori Community Hui.
So what is my role. Just what does a city arts officer do?
The comedian in me would answer by saying...I don’t know but it takes all day.
But the straight answer is...
I meet with an average of 40 creative people each month
I help develop arts projects in the city and suburbs
I try to build audiences and outreach and partnerships
I locate funding and resources for artists, collectives, and organisations
I help operate the new arts centre in Abel Smith Street
In everything I do, I hope to advance our shared culture.
And this brings me to an even more important question...
What exactly is culture, and how do we know it?
I have a global cosmopolitan outlook, and I often look to other places for inspiration and meaning.
So I called on a few of the world's thinkers for a reply...
A Caribbean writer, Aime Cesair tells us that:
Culture is everything. Culture is the way we dress, the way we carry our heads, the way we walk, the way we tie our ties -- it is not only the fact of writing books or building houses.
The English writer Aldous Huxley put it this way:
Culture is like the sum of special knowledge that accumulates in any large united family and is the common property of all its members.
T.S. Eliot claimed that culture is an organic, shared system of beliefs that cannot be planned or artificially induced...with the chief means of transmission being the family.
And a standard textbook definition describes culture as:
The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.
Now I am supposed to be here telling you about the new arts centre, so let me take a few minutes to provide an overview before we get back to the idea of culture...
OPENING DAYS
One year ago, the small staff of Wellington's longstanding Community Arts Centre in the Oriental Bay Rotunda packed up and moved into the two buildings at 61-69 Abel Smith Street. I was fortunate enough to be one of them.
Thus began the first phase of our city's new creative hub. This genesis followed two years of intensive consultation and planning with the arts community, who helped us shape the plan. Guided by the Council's policy unit, the effort also depended on more than a half dozen Council staff and units, and a crowd of contractors and tradesmen.
The development of this major public facility also depended heavily on the vision and input of the Mayor and our elected officers. A small army was energised to bring the idea to fruition and bring the new arts centre to its official opening in July 2005.
The early months were a work in progress, with
- contractors finishing up the first stages of interior refit
- several film production concerns taking up administrative spaces on the
top floor
- over thirty visual artists selected for the two levels of studio spaces
- sound-proofing for the music rooms
and an on-going series of meetings to network the growing user base.
Confirmed early tenants included
Dance Aotearoa New Zealand
Barbarian Productions
Taki Rua Productions
Blue room Studio, and
Sticky Pictures
In July 2005, when the Mayor and several hundred cultural leaders helped officially open the facility, the Arts Centre was already buzzing with creative production and artistic collaboration.
The mission of the facility is to support new and emerging artists of all kinds in Wellington, while providing spaces, venues, classes and resources for anyone looking for creative opportunities. So what's inside our new arts centre?
The complex comprises 3,000sqm and is spread out over seven floors and two buildings. These contain
* classrooms and workshop space for community arts activities
* a gallery/exhibition space for the visual arts
* a project room for producers, festivals, and seasonal administration
* several meeting/rehearsal rooms for organisations and groups
* long-term administrative offices for a dozen creative organisations
* a photographic darkroom for hire
* 28 low-cost artists studios housing about 40 emerging creative Wellingtonians
* Several rehearsal spaces for performing artists, dance troupes, and theatre productions
* 3 sound-proofed music rooms for band practice and music instruction
* a staffed reception/lobby.
And what exactly does this place have to do with culture?
Walk in, on any given day, and you might find
* a dozen artists working in their dedicated studios (carving, painting, editing, making).
* theatre rehearsals for an upcoming show at BATS or Circa
* dance or painting classes for children
* the core staff of the Fringe Festival closing out the 2006 season or
* the director of Cuba Street Carnival preparing for the 2007 street party
* a gallery exhibition by an up-and-coming artist (there's one opening as I speak, featuring a photographic project by Frankie Rouse)
* local rock or jazz bands practicing in the rooms below
* a life drawing session in the art classroom
* The editors at Sticky Pictures busily finishing another music video
* The staff of Taki Rua planning its next festivals tour or Maori theatre production
* A small staff at the reception desk who have become the creative information resource for our city
* The director of the NZ Comedy Festival readying her press releases and communications
* Post-production staff for Whenua Films, finishing work on Taika Waititi's first feature film
* Black Grace and Friends rehearsing for their recent dance programme, produced here at Soundings Theatre
* And me, in a small office on level one, meeting with 2 or 3 artists each day, and looking for ways to advance their creative projects.
All of these things involved the telling of culture. They hold a mirror up to our faces. They criticise, poke fun at, draw influences from, and celebrate who we are. Going back to Aldous Huxley, the Arts provide a way for us to know
The special knowledge we have accumulated
This large united family we are all part of, and
The common property we call culture.
And this process of knowing culture doesn't really take all day, with a nod to my opening joke. It takes a lifetime.
My favourite definition comes from Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes who said
Culture is our answer to the challenges of life. It is the way we walk, and eat, and dance, and sing, and look, dress, dream and struggle, and furnish our homes, greet others, pray, remember, desire and love.
And that brings me to the end of my brief talk with you today.
I close with a rather lofty question for everyone in this room:
How will we, as New Zealanders in the 21st century, define, realise, and share our culture?
The answer is out there, all over the City of Wellington. But it is really inside each and every one of us. And for that, we should all feel honoured.
Kia ora.
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ENDNOTE 2 - Bruce Mau's 43 Instructions for Us All
An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth
Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements that exemplify Bruce Mau's beliefs, motivations and strategies. It also articulates how the BMD studio works.
1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
2. Forget about good. Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.
3. Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we're going, but we will know we want to be there.
4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
5. Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.
6. Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.
7. Study. A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.
8. Drift. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.
9. Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.
10. Everyone is a leader. Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.
11. Harvest ideas. Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.
12. Keep moving. The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.
13. Slow down. Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.
14. Don't be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.
15. Ask stupid questions. Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.
16. Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.
17. ____________________. Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven't had yet, and for the ideas of others.
18. Stay up late. Strange things happen when you've gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.
19. Work the metaphor. Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.
20. Be careful to take risks. Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.
21. Repeat yourself. If you like it, do it again. If you don't like it, do it again.
22. Make your own tools. Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.
23. Stand on someone's shoulders. You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.
24. Avoid software. The problem with software is that everyone has it.
25. Don't clean your desk. You might find something in the morning that you can't see tonight.
26. Don't enter awards competitions. Just don't. It's not good for you.
27. Read only left-hand pages. Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."
28. Make new words. Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.
29. Think with your mind. Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.
30. Organization = Liberty. Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a 'charming artifact of the past.'
31. Don't borrow money. Once again, Frank Gehry's advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It's not exactly rocket science, but it's surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.
32. Listen carefully. Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.
33. Take field trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic-simulated environment.
34. Make mistakes faster. This isn't my idea -- I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.
35. Imitate. Don't be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp's large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.
36. Scat. When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else ... but not words.
37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.
38. Explore the other edge. Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can't find the leading edge because it's trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.
39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces -- what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference -- the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals - but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.
40. Avoid fields. Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.
41. Laugh. People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I've become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.
42. Remember. Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That's what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.
43. Power to the people. Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we're not free.
posted by Cultural Engineer @ 6:10 pm
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