News

Helen Vivienne Fletcher's play, Justice is Blind, has won the teenage category of Playmarket's 2020 Plays for the Young competition. Keep Reading

Glass Ceiling Arts Collective has brought together a diverse group of Kiwi artists from across the nation to create The Badger’s Story, a new digital resource that enables people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and high health needs to experience a multi-sensory theatre work, along with their whānau members and care... Keep Reading

Aucklander Kelly Hodgins’ passion and bubbly personality shine through when she talks about New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpreted theatre and other arts events for Deaf people. Keep Reading

“I think of myself as an essential life-saving service but that's an unofficial statement,” Rob Mokaraka says in an email when he’s told that his solo show Shot Bro, due to be performed to men at Rimutaka Prison in two days’ time, has had to be postponed because of COVID-19. Keep Reading

Until eight years ago, Leonie Aben, acting Prison Director of Hawkes Bay Regional Prison, saw arts programmes in prisons as more of an optional extra, a good way of keeping prisoners occupied rather than an integral part of building self-esteem, motivation and a sense of cultural identity. Keep Reading

Wellington Integrated Dance (WIDance) celebrates our tenth anniversary this year. WIDance member Judith Jones talks with Sumara Fraser, artistic director and leader of the very first class on 18 July 2010, about the origins, purpose and experiences of this integrated dance group. Keep Reading

A volunteer project at Invercargill Prison involved a group of six prisoners and two volunteers making nine Manu Tukutuku, traditional toitoi kites, for Matariki. The kites were gifted to the Invercargill Matariki Light Festival in Queens Park from 13 to 19 July, where they hung as part of the community display. Keep Reading

The Government needs to put its money where its mouth is, says Diana McPherson, Director of Māpura Studios in Auckland. “If Creative New Zealand doesn’t have the capacity to fund creative spaces, then other government sources need to step up and recognise the benefits of the arts for everyone, in particular for people already... Keep Reading

Local Kiwi author Steff Green makes a living self-publishing romance novels. Now she’s launched an online course helping authors self-publish to a high professional standard – complete with a free scholarship programme for disabled writers and writers of colour. Keep Reading

Antoinette Spicer is a second-year journalism student at the New Zealand Broadcasting School in Ōtautahi Christchurch. For her independent projects, she is creating a five-part podcast series on art initiatives and programmes that improve New Zealanders’ wellbeing.  Keep Reading

Auckland’s Tim Bray Theatre Company was ten days away from opening its 100th show, a production of Joy Cowley’s picture book Greedy Cat, when New Zealand went into lockdown because of COVID-19.   On the advice of its Business Development Manager, Gail Rotherham, the company started a fundraising crisis appeal early on. Keep Reading

A new art programme designed to enrich creativity, and enhance self-esteem and problem-solving skills, is underway in Invercargill Prison. Keep Reading

Depot Artspace is a creative space that has been operating in Devonport, Auckland, since 1996. Depot Artspace’s ArtsLab programme helps people wanting to work in a creative field to find jobs. Keep Reading

Christchurch Men’s Prison have run a prison-wide creativity competition for the men in their care. The competition ran for the two weeks around ANZAC Day and in the middle of the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown. “The arts are a great release for people,” says Prison Director Jo Harrex, “and we have some very talented people in our... Keep Reading

A few minutes in the company of Whanganui volunteer Juanita Davis with some of the men she has been teaching to weave, and the value of her work shines through. Keep Reading