Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 2018 Ryman Healthcare Season of The Nutcracker, which is touring the country over November and December, includes audio described performances for blind and low-vision audience members. Keep Reading
Luxury getaways, affordable art from the quirky to the collectible, Cuba Street treats, and tickets to live performance are among the 60 items up for grabs at the annual Awesome Arts Access Auction, to be held at Te Auaha NZ Institute of Creativity, Dixon St, Wellington on Wednesday 14 November. Keep Reading
“There’s no such thing as a disabled writer. We are all just writers.” That was the moot of a debate attended by a huge crowd at CQ Hotels Wellington during the LitCrawl Wellington festival on Saturday 10 November. Keep Reading
Prisoners at Otago Corrections Facility listen to Rue-Jade Morgan when he tells them they can change their lives for the better. That’s because they know he’s been where they are now; that he once spent several years inside for aggravated robbery. Keep Reading
A new cultural programme, Te Mana Wahine, is responding to the growing population of women prisoners in New Zealand by working with the women to develop their identity and cultural belonging, and build their connections to whānau and tamariki. Keep Reading
“I like watching the sky: the clouds moving, the contrasts of colour and shape and shade.” Rosemarie, an artist at Pablos Art Studios in Wellington for the past three years, is talking about the artwork she has donated to the Pablos Art Auction on Friday 26 October. Keep Reading
An invitation to speak at an Arts For All Otago Network meeting about making the arts accessible to people with autism sparked an exhibition at the Otago Museum of artwork by artists with autism. Keep Reading
Connect the Dots, an Auckland charity running art classes and workshops for older people and people living with dementia, is working towards an exhibition in 2019 aimed at reducing stigma and social isolation and showing what people living with dementia have to offer. Keep Reading
The Candle Wasters, a group of young New Zealand women creating a “fierce and funny webseries” called Tragicomic, is focussing on mental health in its latest project. Keep Reading
Any visit to Christchurch brings vivid reminders of the devastation the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 inflicted on the city. Their impact on the community was unprecedented and along with the physical damage, the earthquakes caused other kinds of hurt. Keep Reading
A dancer challenging perceptions about who can dance, a festival building new audiences in the disabled and Deaf communities, a partnership project providing creativity and connections for alienated youth, a creative space in Christchurch providing a pathway to mental health and wellbeing, and leadership in delivering arts programmes in... Keep Reading
Lynn Freeman has been following, encouraging and championing New Zealand art and artists for nearly two decades now – as host of Radio New Zealand’s arts shows What’s Going On, The Arts on Sunday and now Standing Room Only. Keep Reading
A partnership between students from a Catholic boys’ secondary school and youth prisoners was recognised in Parliament when Hawkes Bay Regional Prison and St John’s College received the Arts Access Corrections Whai Tikanga Award 2018. Keep Reading
Auckland dancer Jesse Johnstone-Steele has been changing people’s perceptions about who can dance for the past 20 years. Keep Reading
Leadership, commitment and engagement with Auckland’s various disability communities resulted in a massive 806% increase in ticket sales to the Auckland Arts Festival 2018’s accessible events – up from 47 patrons to the 2017 accessible events to 426 in 2018. Keep Reading
Arts Access Aotearoa
RE-INTEGRATION CHALLENGES: “There are some wide-ranging assumptions that ‘the community’ will take care of vulnerable people and that ‘they’ will take up what is available. Like, ‘There are services, aren’t there?’” 
