Arts Blog

Arts For All Network celebrates 2025

A round-up of arts accessibility achievements across Aotearoa in 2025, celebrating the mahi of Arts For All Network members, from museums and galleries to performing arts, festivals, and accessibility service providers.

“Profound ability of toi Māori to create change”

"I was born to a Māori father and Pākehā mother. After three generations of whānau urban migration, the negative and brutal experiences dad had as a boy, and because we were born pale-skinned, my parents did everything to stop us from being Māori."

A love letter to Crip the Lit

It’s International Day of Disabled People on Wednesday 3 December. So to mark the occasion in true Crip the Lit fashion, a group of hilarious, talented and imaginative writers are getting together to honour and memorialise the disabled ancestors who came before us.

Shift perspectives and improve funding outcomes

"The value of bringing people together in person rather than on a screen was evident at the recent Shifting the Stream: rethinking arts investment forum, held in Tāmaki Makaurau'" blogs Richard Benge.

How to use pūrākau in Arts in Corrections

Pūrākau are Māori ancestral stories carrying wisdom, values and a way of seeing the world. When used in Arts in Corrections, they do much more than fill a lesson plan. They help people understand who they are, reconnect with culture and place, and reflect through creative expression.

The light bulbs that art turns on

I’m an experienced high school teacher and I’ve worked a lot with troubled youth in low-decile schools. I wanted to extend that experience and use my skills to make a positive impact on men in prison and so in January 2020, I took up my role as Educational Arts Tutor...

Telling your story to “persuadables”

How do you talk about the arts, culture and creative sector in a way that helps people understand and support what’s needed for the sector to survive? It’s a question posed in Creative New Zealand’s excellent guide Changing the Story on Arts, Culture and Creativity in Aotearoa. Download the guide....

Art as rehabilitation: the case for creativity in prisons

Remembering Dr Helen Farley and her insights on how the arts can heal, educate, and transform lives in Aotearoa’s prisons.

Arts For All Network on the road

The Arts For All Network went on the road in 2025, connecting Deaf, disabled and non-disabled members across Aotearoa through regional hui, venue visits and face-to-face kōrero.

Remembering David Cameron: a humble master of Mahi Toi

Kaumātua Te Aturangi Nepia-Clamp remembers artist David Cameron, recipient of the 2016 Artistic Achievement Award, and his legacy in kowhaiwhai at Pakowhai Marae.

Onwards and upwards for the next thirty years

Happy thirtieth birthday, Arts Access Aotearoa. Back in 1995, I remember sitting on our sunny deck, talking to someone from Creative New Zealand about a new and exciting venture related to disability and the arts. I had high, probably unrealistic expectations, but I’m an eternal optimist. I had seen innovative disability arts in the UK and...