I’ve always known that books are a force for good in the world (although there are the odd bad apples!), but what I had not realised until earlier this week is that selling donated second-hand books can be a great way of raising sizable funds. On 20 and 21 February, The Regent, Dunedin’s grand old theatre on the Octagon, held a 24 hour book sale. The sale is a staple annual event of the city, having been around for almost 50 years and reputedly being the Southern Hemisphere’s largest second-hand book sale. There were thousands of books, including a tower of at least 30 copies of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code left over from last year, all sorted by volunteers and set out on tables set up by navy, army and air cadets. Children's books were sold for just $1 each, as a way of encouraging reading.
The theatre hasn’t said exactly how much putea was raised this year, but in 2019, $85,000 was raised by the book sale. We do know that the funds raised this year have enabled the theatre to become the first performing arts venue in the South Island to install Auracast™ assistive listening technology. The system improves accessibility for patrons and performers with hearing difficulties by delivering clear, real-time audio directly to personal devices via bluetooth technology. This means that audio can bypass distance and space and go directly into people’s hearing aids. “Providing access for Deaf and disabled artists and audiences alike is key,” says Richard Benge, Executive Director of Arts Access Aotearoa. “We are pleased that Regent Theatre’s plans include accessibility on both sides of the stage. It’s a powerful step towards creating a truly equitable arts landscape.”
Book sale funds also supported a major lighting overhaul. Through industry partnerships, the Theatre secured high-end LED equipment at a fraction of its original $200,000 cost. The new system introduces full colour-mixing and adaptable configurations, expanding the venue's ability to host complex productions, and reduces power consumption.
And it seems the plans and fundraising never stops. The next planned upgrade involves a bespoke wheelchair access ramp to improve stage accessibility. The Regent Theatre Music & Entertainment Sale is on 6 June, and donations for the 2027 book sale are already being accepted at BP 2 Go Mornington, the theatre’s box office, and a storage unit at National Storage, 229 Kaikorai Valley Road. These sales are as much proof of a fundraising concept as they are proof of the value of involved communities. It takes scores of volunteers to pull off such massive events, and a community willing to donate and buy books and music memorabilia – so perhaps it wasn’t the books that raised the funds so much as the people.
💥News on the wire
The Budget to go public at 2pm today
Andrew Paul Wood is at the ready to inspect the documents as they are released and give us a run-down and analysis of what is and isn’t in there for the arts. We hope to have this ready for you to read tomorrow – so come back then!
Youth-led music competition celebrates emerging talent
New Found Sound, a programme delivered by The Y’s Raise Up youth development programme, has started on a high note. Through a series of regional heats, the competition gives high school students the opportunity to perform live and compete for a place in the grand finals at Auckland’s venue, The Tuning Fork. Behind the scenes, young people gain hands-on experience in event production, coordination, and live music delivery by helping bring the competition to life. Finalists receive support from industry experts, including training and guidance on showcraft.
Emerging artist Olivia Reeves took out first place at the opening heat in East Auckland this weekend. Olivia is a two-time finalist in Play It Strange, has independently released music and is one of 14 mentees in the APRA Aotearoa Mentorship Programme. There are four more heats to go across Auckland, and the public is invited to go along and support.
🌹Dame Jools Topp dies day after being honoured
Last Friday at the Country Music Honours in Gore, the Country Music Honour for Contribution to Country Music in Aotearoa was awarded to the Topp Twins. The Honour, only in its second year, celebrates members of the country music community who have not only achieved great heights of their own but uplifted others and contributed to the past, present, and future of country music in Aotearoa. Dame Lynda and Dame Jools have dedicated their lives to standing up and singing for what’s right and bringing joy to audiences in every nook and cranny of the country.
Dame Jools died peacefully at home on Saturday with her twin sister Dame Lynda, brother Bruce, close friends, and fur-babies by her side. She had lived with breast cancer for 22 years. Dame Lynda said “Now she is finally free to ride on Pegasus, her winged horse, and round up sheep again with our dad Peter and all her precious dogs.”
Silo Theatre on a winning streak
The theatre has extended the season of Playfight until 4 June, which is selling out performances and has received critical acclaim since opening earlier this month. Liv Parker, one of the three actors, wrote a Shameless Plug for us last week. It's a moving play that tackles the social conversations surrounding ‘rough sex’, inspired directly by the 2018 murder of Grace Millane. “This is exactly the kind of work I want Silo to be sharing with audiences – responsive, honest, gutsy and held with real care,” says Artistic Director Sophie Henderson. “It opens up conversations we need to be having, especially with young people, and it does it with so much heart."
Next up is Constellations by Nick Payne, which has been reimagined through a te ao Māori lens by Nī Dekkers-Reihana. Henderson says this production continues the company’s commitment to staging influential contemporary international work and letting it shift in response to Aotearoa. “After A View from the Bridge, we’re interested in what happens when major contemporary plays land here,” she says, “when those plays are made alive in this place – carrying the weight of extraordinary writing, while also carrying our own voices.”
ASB Bank new major partner of The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi
The bank’s KiwiSaver and investment funds scheme, ASB Invest, will be presenting the Arts Gala this year.
Fiona Samuel lands in Menton for Katherine Mansfield Fellowship
Award-winning writer, director and actor Fiona Samuel has arrived in Menton, southern France, where she will live and write for three months, with all expenses covered thanks to a $50,000 grant. She will have access to a writing room at Villa Isola Bella – where Katherine Mansfield once lived and wrote. If you’re feeling envy, applications for the fellowship in 2027 are open now, and close 12 June. The residency is open to creative writers across all genres, including fiction, children’s fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction and playwriting.
Māori film festival returns for 21st birthday
The Wairoa Māori Film Festival is returning this weekend, after taking a hiatus last year. This year's festival includes 50 short films, five features, a film symposium and an art gallery, with a focus on Māori cinema, moving image art and films by Kahungunu and Rakaipaaka descent creatives. Founder Leo Koziol says the festival nearly disappeared, but support and community arts funding helped bring it back. “The festival's return marks how far Māori film has grown since the festival began,” he says. “Wairoa's role in promoting Māori film has changed dramatically in the past two decades, with Māori films now a regular and popular part of national film schedules.”
👔 Human resources
Te Papa shares final decisions of restructure's second phase
In October last year our national museum announced a whole-of-organisation change process (review and restructure). Final decisions of the second phase have been shared with staff, with changes to take effect from 1 July. “Faced with the reality that we need to make necessary salary savings to secure Te Papa’s long-term financial sustainability, we have had to assess the way our teams are structured, and how our services are delivered,” reads a press release from the museum – though its light on detail surrounding job losses. Reporting from The Post’s André Chumko reveals 20 additional positions will be lost, and that is expected to save $968,000 per year.
Aaron Kreisler to be SCAPE Public Art Managing Curator for 2026-27
SCAPE Public Art, best known for the SCAPE Public Art Trail that sees temporary and permanent artworks sculptures around Ōtautahi Christchurch, has appointed Ōtautahi-based curator, writer and arts leader Aaron Kreisler as its next Managing Curator. Kreisler is Head of Creative and Digital Arts at the University of Canterbury, former Head of the Ilam School of Fine Arts, and has previously worked at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, where he produced more than 50 exhibitions. He succeeds curator Tyson Campbell, whose term concluded earlier this year.
“I see this as a chance to commission work that reveals and responds to the historical, social and cultural residues of sites in the city that lie psychologically just below the surface in our shared public consciousness,” says Kreisler. “I am interested in how the artworks can create experiences that resonate well beyond the moment of engagement and generate new discussions and perspectives that shift how we see and understand this city.”
🎉 Due applause
First results from New Music Pan-Asian focus round announced
NZ On Air will be supporting 20 Pan-Asian artists with the recording, video content, and promotion costs of their new song with a fund designed to address the historic under-representation of Pan-Asian artists in the music sector and within our music funding – and create content that will engage Pan-Asian audiences in Aotearoa.
77 eligible applications were received and 20 songs will receive a share of $11,000. The recipients include people from Armenia, China, India, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. They are: amol, with life is war; Annika Rani with Watching from Below; Club Ruby with Guilty Pleasure; Community Treatment Order with Burning, Crystal Chen with Going on a Roll; dān dān with liquorice tea; 花溪 Flowerstream with Found a Place; Goodspace with Overcomplicating, Grapehouse with Ode to Her; hanbee with call me yours, Iris Zhang with Waters High, Jazeerabad with Silence/Cicadence; Kaishandao with Celestial Surf Crash; LETOA with Rage Quit feat. LAMES; Nime Astria with Sexybeat; Ray Leslie with ANECDOTES; romiin with stublin’; Suren Unka with Glide, Tehran Don with Broken Yellow Hearted; and Vile with MANEATER.
Five-time finalist Duncan Pepe Long wins Adam Portraiture Award
This year the prize has increased from $20,000 to $30,000 and has been taken home by Auckland painter and printmaker Duncan Pepe Long with an oil painting titled Solomon Tāmehana. “Solomon is an artist, tattooist, musician, and a close friend,” says Long. “I’m drawn to painting people I know well — especially those living and creating beyond mainstream paths, whose lives and work, I believe, deserve recognition. Solomon embodies a fiercely independent, DIY spirit.” The award had 429 entries, and 43 finalists are on display at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata from Thursday 21 May 2026. Images of the 2026 Adam Portaiture Award recipients can be found here
David Correos won The Fred Award, and Joel Vinsen won the Billy T Award
The Last Laughs Awards Gala finished off the NZ International Comedy Festival on Sunday. The Fred Award recognises the Comedy Festival's best local show. This year David Correos won with his show Touching My Active Mind, receiving the iconic Golden Gumboot and a cash grant of $5,000. The Billy T Award, inspired by comedy legend William James Te Wehi Taitoko, celebrates fresh talent in the Aotearoa comedy industry. Joel Vinsen, with his show Renaissance Man, took home the Yellow Towel and a $5,000 cash grant.
Yet another award for Marlon Williams and Kommi Tamati-Elliffe
Whakameatia Mai, written by Marlon Williams and Kommi Tamati-Elliffe won the APRA Best Country Music Song. This is Marlon’s second time winning, the first being in 2013 with co-writer Delaney Davidson for Bloodletter.
👀 Further reading
Three researchers asked 30 disabled musicians what barriers they face. They share what they were told, including the fact that most studios aren’t accessible for wheelchair users.
A US court found Live Nation and Ticketmaster used their monopoly to overcharge. Those same giants control major parts of our music sector. Dr Dave Carter and Dr Jesse Austin-Stewart ask how we can encourage competition.
Just Janie shares the joy of imperfection and humanity that happens when recording in analog.
