From rap artists and performance poets to poetry slams and 24-hour poetry marathons, Friday 30 July marks a vintage year for National Poetry Day with more events than ever before happening throughout the country.

An update from the Auckland Arts and Culture Working Group on the Auckland governance transition and issues related to arts and culture in the new Auckland Council.

The Going West Books and Writers Weekend features a tribute to poet and short story writer JC Sturm including segments of the documentary 'Broken Journey: The Life and Art of JC Sturm'; and  filmmaker Roger Horrocks on Len Lye including his little known poems.

The 2010 New Zealand Art Show is on from July 30 to August 1 in Wellington. Watch this video interview with New Zealand Affordable Art Trust Executive Director Carla Russell.

Students from Auckland schools will join a line-up of leading New Zealand poets for an event at the Auckland City Library on Friday, as part of National Poetry Day.

Public events as part of next year’s nationwide Rugby World Cup festival will be supported by a new $9.5 million lotteries fund. An application form and FAQ is attached at the bottom of this release.

Two theatre seasons, the first-ever West Auckland Pecha Kucha event, the popular Book Market and Poetry Slam, as well as a line-up of leading contemporary New Zealand writers, all feature as part of Going West Books and Writers Festival 2010.

More than 50 art works will be put up for sale at the North Shore Women’s Centre charity art auction and exhibition in September.

The search is on to find the best Maori has to offer the music world – from urban, hip-hop, pop and reggae to show bands and iconic composers – which will all be celebrated at the Waiata Maori Awards.

There will be no Maori Language Award at the NZ Post Book Awards this year as there were no books submitted into that category.

Record label Flying Nun is explored visually along with other independent music labels in New Zealand in the next exhibition at Adam Art Gallery.

Maori Television’s current affairs show Native Affairs will celebrate Maori Language Week this year by presenting a show entirely in te reo, with subtitles, and on a reo theme.

The year’s most confronting and compelling press photos from around the globe will be shown in Auckland from August 13th as part of the World Press Photo Exhibition 2010.

Four Maori carvers will travel to the Netherlands to carve posts and barge boards for a waka shelter for the new waka taua.

The Strange Case of Angelica is the most bafflingly incomprehensible ‘narrative’ film I have ever seen.   I was convinced, at the end of the thoroughly trying screening which I attended, that either 101 year old director Manoel de Oliveira had lost his marbles, or I had lost mine.

This exhibition presents four artworks: three installation works, and an audiovisual performance by Anaesthesia Associates (Daniel James and Paul Bradley).  It is the culmination (and the assessment point) of Daniel’s doctoral research in fine arts.

The infinite possibilities of the universe, the thrill of discovery, and the excitement of travel to exotic worlds are metaphors for the 2011 Auckland Arts Festival, says Artistic Director David Malacari.

Finalists in the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards are set to take the stage in Wellington and Christchurch as the awards hit the road for the first time in their 46 year history.

Farewell to a great man of fashion and philanthropy: Gus Fisher, arts patron and New Zealand fashion industry pioneer, passed away on Tuesday July 20, aged 89. Read the tributes and use the comment box to add yours.