On Tuesday night, Tempo officially opened, with YMCĀ, a triumphant new work choreographed by Oli Mathiesen. After the show, I wasn’t quite tall enough to see Zanetti or Oli when they made their brief, but bright, speeches. Instead I looked up at the twinkling fairy lights, the green grapes left on the charcuterie board, and felt grateful.
Last night, it was the Silver Scrolls. For the first time ever, a song written entirely in Gagana Samoa won the APRA Silver Scroll. When LALELEI, written by LEAO – David Feauai-Afaese, Navakatoa Tekela-Pule, Levi Gemmell, and Larsen Taylor, was announced it received a standing ovation. There’s five varied awards at the scrolls, listed below in News on the wire. The ceremony, which was studded with performances, and relentless digs at the current government (starting with MC Madeleine Sami’s “hashtag one term government”, continuing with Rob Ruha’s “vote those clowns out” and finally Jools Topp saying “its time for change”), was more than three hours long – and that's not including the drinks and canapés before and after.
And still, the charcuterie boards are far from over. Tonight I’ll pop into a double book launch celebrating Liam jacobson and Isla Huia’s second poetry collections. Tomorrow is The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Awards, where many in the sector will come together to celebrate eight new laureates. Tickets have sold out, as they usually do, and everyone is rifling their closets to dust off the nicest pieces they own. I won’t be live-blogging this year, so if you’re impatient to know who the new laureates are, follow The Arts Foundation's social media.
It's one celebration after another, but behind all the nice cheese, and all that lovely wine, our sector is not doing so well. Our wellbeing is tied up in the economy, in political choices, and tides of the time. When we scrub up, whether it's to get glam or simply turn up to work and keep things running, we’re having to push through a bit of cognitive dissonance. We all know people who have lost their jobs in the sector, or who haven't been able to make their creative work, and we all know organisations that are tightening their belts, or that have no more belt to tighten. And yet we keep going.
Research shows creative professionals’ median income in New Zealand was $37,000, including earnings from supplement, non-creative work that 44% of creatives took part in, in 2023. This was far below the $61,800 median for salary and wage earners. While their work may be enjoyable and fulfilling, it's hard to marry a creative's average earnings (about $596 per week in hand) up with the ability to live life at a reasonable standard, and fully participate in what society has to offer. You could say that our celebration nights fill our cups and bring us joy, or you could view them as the proverbial pizza party.
The reasonable view is that we have to accept both things to be true, and live in the dissonance. There is plenty to celebrate, and like Neil Finn said in a rousing speech last night, "there has to be more to life than no new taxes". Perhaps cheering, then telling politicians that if they like the arts there's a donation box called Budget 2027, like Sami did, is the perfect balance of the contradiction. We would all would prefer a dozen more substantial things for artists and the arts over wine and cheese. But perhaps my stomach is leading me astray. These nights are not about the little treats, they’re about recognising people, both from the stalls and kanohi ki te kanohi, a different kind of sustenance.
💥News on the wire
And the APRA Silver Scroll Award winners are…
‘Puna Ora’, written by Charles Looker and Emily Looker, performed by Aro won the Maioha Award - Tohu Maioha. ‘Light Lines’ by Dylan Lardelli for string trio won the SOUNZ Contemporary Award - Te Tohu Auaha. ‘Te Tapuni’ written by Rob Ruha, performed by Te Taumata o Apanui won Te Tihi o te Maunga Tito the Kapa Haka Songwriting Award. Claire Cowan’s soundtrack for the series ‘Bust Up’ won the APRA Best Original Music in a Series Award - Tohu Paerangi. Karl Steven’s score for Pike River won the APRA Best Original Music in a Feature Film Award -Tohu Pūmanawa. And finally, ‘LALELEI’, written by David Feauai-Afaese, Navakatoa Tekela-Pule, Levi Gemmell, Larsen Taylor, and performed by LEAO won the APRA Silver Scroll Award - Kaitito Kaiaka.
Aotearoa artists showing at Biennale de Lyon, but 24 pieces almost didn’t make it
The 18th Lyon Biennale, To pass from one dream to another, is on now until 13 December. The curatorial spotlight, held by Catherine Nichols is on Oceania, ten artists from Aotearoa are part of that. Fiona Clark, Michael Stevenson, Sriwhana Spong, Ngahina Hohaia, Maureen Lander, Rangi Kipa, John Miller, Ashleigh Taupaki, Luke Willis Thompson and Yana Nafysa Dombrowsky M'Baye all have work there. For more information about what they’re showing, and some pictures, see this week’s Global Compass.
Twenty-four whale-bone carvings by Rangi Kipa nearly didn’t make it. The permits required to import them into France were granted on the day of their departure, and the New Zealand export permits arrived only the day before. Over on Te Ao Māori News, this story is “the latest example of the hurdles Māori artists face under CITES rules governing protected materials”. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species rules are a United Nations Convention that monitors and controls international travel of items containing protected animals and plants. They are designed to stop illegal wildlife trade, but can also prevent taonga from travelling internationally. Māori artist Bonita Bigham (Ngāruahine, Te Ātiawa) says the issue also affects people who travel with taonga without realising they could be confiscated at an international border. Next month she is attending the CITES Standing Committee meeting in Geneva alongside DOC representatives to ask that the rules take into account the cultural reasons people carry taonga.
Auckland Theatre Company’s 2027 season includes Agatha Christie, Shakespeare, and two new NZ works
On Monday ATC announced the eight plays that will make up next year’s season. There’s some classics: Stephen King’s Misery, Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, David Seidler’s The King’s Speech, and Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. There’s also Jane Austen with a twist of Penny Ashton in Sense and Sensibility, a re-run of Fiona Samuel’s Helen Clark In Six Outfits, and most excitingly two new plays. Victor Rodger ONZM has written an affectionate love letter to his highly unlikely but utterly fabulous Uncle Pasi, in The Boy from Vaiala, and Kāi Tahu playwright Alex Medland’s premier, Becoming Jeff Bezos, follows a young woman who idealises the Amazon-founding billionaire.
Wellington City Council hands responsibility of art collection to specialist curators
The week André Chumko at The Post reported that Wellington City Council is handing responsibility for its art collection in a bid to get more of the artworks out of storage and in front of the public. It holds about 590 artworks, and about 55 public works (sculptures and murals). Some are hung in council offices and inside public venues like libraries. At a council meeting last month, mayor Andrew Little asked if there was an opportunity to display more. It seems that much of the collection will be managed by Experience Wellington, the council-controlled organisation that runs venues including City Gallery. It already keeps some of the collection in its storage facility. Curatorial staff will be able to use the first-floor exhibition space inside Te Matapihi – the central library, and will manage new acquisitions. The full art collection can be browsed at cityart.wcc.govt.nz.
Mārama named New Zealand’s submission for the 99th Oscars
The debut feature from writer-director Taratoa Stappard (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa), has been selected as New Zealand’s Official Submission for Best International Feature Film for the 99th Oscars. The film has been travelling internationally since its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. Mārama is set in Victorian-era Yorkshire and follows a young Māori woman who is summoned from Aotearoa to England, where she uncovers the devastating truth of her colonial heritage.
“Mārama is my Māori gothic love letter to our land, our ancestors and the stories that live in the shadows. To have it chosen to represent Aotearoa New Zealand is huge,” said Stappard. It has already received significant recognition, including the Official Competition Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival, the Dramatic Feature Award and Audience Choice Feature Award at imagineNATIVE, Best Fantastic Feature Film at the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam, and the Audience Award for Best Film at Abertoir International Horror Festival in Wales.
🎉 Due applause
Dan Bain and Rebecca Hawkes to be writers in residence at the University of Canterbury in 2027
The Ursula Bethell Writers in Residence for 2027 have been announced. Each writer will spend six months at the Ilam campus with UC’s English department, with a salary jointly funded by the University of Canterbury and Creative New Zealand.
Dan Bain is an award-winning playwright and the first writer in residence to have graduated from clown school. Many in Ōtautahi will know him as a director, improvisor, actor, drama educator, podcaster, theatre programmer and comedian. He will arrive in late January to work on a play involving Victorian scientists and dinosaur reconstruction. Rebecca Hawkes is a Pōneke-based award-winning painter-poet, originally from Methven. She recently completed an MFA at the University of Michigan as a Fulbright Scholar. Rebecca will begin in July, working on a poetic mixed-materials project that reflects on her upbringing as the child of two Te Waipounamu geologists.
Amelia Fagence to make ObjectSpace’s 2027 Courtyard Plinth Commission
Amelia Fagence will create a new collection of furniture for the site, to be launched in March 2027. Using locally sourced solid wood, the collection will extend on Fagence’s practice of working timber across a range of scales. Fagence’s works record her hand and crafting through carving marks, textures, and expressed details. Fagence’s practice is informed by her upbringing in native bush in Tāmaki Makaurau with artist parents, and her architectural and design background. She currently lives and works in Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Matt Arbuckle and Christopher Ulutupu the 2027 McCahon House Parehuia Residency Artists
Parehuia is a prestigious residency in Aotearoa, and gives mid-career artists twelve weeks to live and work in Titirangi, in a studio and house adjacent to Colin McCahon’s cottage, which is now a historical site and gallery. Artists receive a stipend and support from the McCahon House team.
👔 Human resources
Wellington Theatre Awards back with a new Creative Director
Celebrating their 35th year, the Wellington Theatre Awards Ngā Whakarākei O Whātaitai are will be held on Sunday 6 December at The Hannah. Te Whanganui-a-Tara based director, producer and performer Parekawa Finlay (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Maniapoto, Te Whakatōhea) is this year’s Creative Director. “There’s a powerful momentum building across our industry. I feel it in the work being made, in the voices coming through, and in the next generation of artists finding their place. Tangaroa’s wave is rising, and this year, I want the Awards to be part of that,” says Parekawa.
Moa Press welcomes Clara van Wel as Assistant Commissioning Editor
Clara van Wel has worked as a bookseller at Unity Books Wellington and Unity Books Auckland. They have also worked as a journalist, completed a Masters of Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters, and hold an honours degree in English Literature from Cambridge University in the UK. Clara will work across fiction and non-fiction and will be responsible for growing the non-fiction list.
Bernie Haldane the new Festival Director and CEO of Auckland Arts Festival
A new, combined role has been created for the Auckland Festival Trust, which sees Bernie Haldane, previously the Kaitohu Toi Artistic Director and interim co-CEO, become the festival director and CEO. Previous CEO, Robbie Macrae, retired in May. The new role brings together artistic direction and executive leadership for the 2027 Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival. “I’m excited to build on that with our team, artists, audiences and partners: backing ambitious artistic work, creating shared experiences and welcoming more people into the festival,” she says.
I’m not crying you’re crying
A note from The Big Idea’s CEO Samuel Walsh
This week was a sappy one for TBI. As we prep for 2027 and a much leaner budget, we've had to say goodbye to three amazing people (Sananda Chatterjee, Kate Rylatt, and Scott Pearson) as funding cuts have meant we can no longer renew their contracts. The office is about to get very quiet, and we're already sulking - but before they close their laptops we just wanted to take a second to acknowledge their massive contributions.
Sananda started at TBI on an initial three-month contract which turned into two years. As our Cultural Insights & Programmes Manager, she’s run our community engagement, helped shape a lot of our new internal systems, and happily disappeared into data, surveys, and systems so the rest of us didn't have to. She’s the rare type of person who says what needs saying, runs towards the most difficult jobs and has made sure artists have been represented front and centre in every conversation we’ve had about TBI's future. Her voice is now planted in our heads whenever we’re unsure about what to prioritise.
Business Development Manager Kate showed up not long after with a supernatural eye for detail and a knack for analysing problems into submission. She was pivotal in dragging our new website from wishful idea to finished platform and was the mastermind behind many of the major changes enacted to our pricing tiers and public-facing processes. Kate actually did her job so well she’s essentially made herself redundant which is both a tragedy and the most Kate thing ever.
Scott has been TBI's resident financial wizard for over eight years. Whilst Scott mainly worked from afar, his steady-as-a-rock and endlessly calming energy has guided us through more versions of TBI than any of us can count with immense patience and skill.
We're hoping they'll all be back in some shape or form soon so until then it's just a casual bye and a massive thank you from Sam, Gabi and the TBI board.
There should be limited disruption to our regular operations thanks to the amazing mahi of these three but we do have some large empty shoes to work around so please bear with us over the coming months as we find a new balance.
👀 Further reading
On Monday evening, six political candidates answered complex, multi-pronged questions and fluffy queries in front of a community that is frustrated, and sick of being under-estimated and under-funded in Ōtautahi. Erin Harrington was there for the sizzle and lack of steak.
Sam Brooks was also at YMCĀ. Read his insightful review on Dramatic Pause.
We tend to think of artist residencies as prestigious and solitary, but there’s plenty that are not like that at all. Emily Makere Broadmore writes from a privately-run residency in Athens about finding residencies that suit you.
In this month’s Global Compass, Genista Jurgens takes a peek in the 18th Lyon Biennale and other places around the world where the curatorial spotlight is on Oceania.
