At the end of June 2009 six grants of up to £8,000 (about NZ$21,000) each will be awarded to artists to travel and study in another Commonwealth country. The scheme is part of the Culture Programme of the Commonwealth Foundation. Eligible art forms include basketry, ceramics, decorative arts, glass, installation art, jewellery, painting, papier mache, performance art, photography, printmaking, sculpture, silver-smithing, textiles and video art. The residencies are open to professional visual artists who are citizens of a Commonwealth country. Students may also apply but they will need to have graduated prior to September 2009. The residencies are not available for travel between any two of the following countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The deadline for receipt of entries is 1 March 2009. Applicants may apply online, by email or by post. Further information and downloadable application forms can be found at www.commonwealthfoundation.com/artsresidencies.
|
The Australasian Performing Art Association (APRA/AMCOS) and Creative New Zealand will host an evening of information for Pacific artists and musicians based in Christchurch and Canterbury about performing rights, royalties and funding. Petrina George and Tarisi Vunidilo will also speak about their respective organisations and how they work to serve the interests of Pacific artists. This is an opportunity not to be missed and will take place on Wednesday 4 February at Christchurch’s Dux de Lux from 6 pm onwards. The workshop will be followed by a performance of original tunes and some classic hits by local reggae band Niu Seila. For more details, visit the Pacific Underground Website. Iva is the 9th consecutive annual Pacific Arts Festival to be organised by local Christchurch arts collective Pacific Underground. Commenting on this milestone, Festival Director Pos Mavaega says, “we hadn’t projected a 5 or 10 year plan when we took on the festival … but we’ve managed to develop a unique event which hosts some of the world’s most honoured and prolific Pasifika artists.” This year’s festival runs from 4-7 February and features music from celebrated Maori Reggae group Herbs Unplugged, songstress Toni Huata, Dunedin Reggae band Koile, local bands Niu Seila, Neon Sophora, Restoration and D’sendantz with local tattoo artist Aki Aupa’au. Tusiata Avia will read from Bloodclot, her new collection of poems. Art enthusiasts will also have their last chance to see “Bite Me” and “Baby You Can Drive My Car”, two exhibitions curated by Maria Ifopo and Stephanie Oberg featuring work by Andy Leleisi’uao, Lonnie Hutchinson, Stone Maka, Maria Ifopo, Raphael Stowers, and Cerisse Palalagi. The popular Family Day returns as do the craft workshops at the Canterbury Museum led by master weaver Emma Kesha , Maria Godinet Watts (Pacific adornment) Reihana Parata and Morehu Flutey (traditional Maori poi-making). For a full programme, visit the Pacific Underground Website.  Toni Huata, one of the star performers at Iva 2009. Photo courtesy of Tanya Muagututi'a Amidst the recent doom and gloom about Fiji, a unique collection of photography, painting, installation and short film is set to start Auckland’s 2009 arts calendar with a spark. Built around a popular phrase from Fiji’s national anthem, the exhibition is an artistic exploration of Fiji by five emerging women artists through four weighty themes: sexuality, militarism, identity and spirituality. Variously born and raised in Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia, the artists are united by their Fiji heritage, their skilful artwork, and their agenda for social change. Among them, Margaret Aull was awarded the Waikato Museum ArtsPost Award for Outstanding Academic Record in 2006. Torika Bolatagici’s photographic and video work has been exhibited locally and overseas, including New York, San Francisco and Auckland. Her PhD has a research focus on Fijian security workers in Iraq. Filani Macassey has curated exhibitions and organised workshops for Art Kaipara including lino prints, wood sculpture and visual arts. Sangeeta Singh and Luisa Tora are members of the Fiji-based Niu Waves Writers’ Collective. Their work (in poetry, painting, and film) challenges social constructs such as sexuality, race and gender. The exhibition runs from 22 Jan to 14 Feb, 2009. It is curated by another emerging Fiji woman artist, Ema Tavola of Fresh Gallery Otara. For an interview with Luisa Tora about the exhibition, click on the title, “A question of Fijian identity” at http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/intheloop/
“4 Women” by Sangeeta Singh. Photo by Ema Tavola courtesy of Fresh Gallery Otara. World renowned Tongan lalava artist and sculptor, Filipe Tohi, is the Starmap Champion for January. During this month, Filipe Tohi welcomes questions about his work, the people and ideas that inspire him, and his artistic vision. He also provides advice on the path to success in the arts. Filipe works across a range of media, including stone, wood, steel and digital imagery, but specialises in the traditional Tongan art of lalava, the decorative sennit lashings used especially in the construction of Tongan and Fijian canoes and houses. He has exhibited and addressed art lovers throughout the world including France, Sweden, Germany, the United States, Hawai’i, Fiji, Tonga, American Samoa, and New Zealand. He is keen to pass on his wisdom to aspiring Pacific artists. To submit a question, click here. Oscar Kightley and John Reuelu Penisula have had their achievements and services to the arts recognised in the New Year Honours 2009 List. Mr Kightley is now a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to television and the theatre. Mr Penisula is also a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to art, in particular sculpture. Pacific Starmap extends its congratulations to these two outstanding artists and thanks them for their continued support of this site.  Malie Tanifa - Stone Carving by Johnny Penisula (Photo courtesy of Johnny Penisula)  Professor Epeli Hau'ofa. Photo courtesy of the University of the South Pacific One of the Pacific’s great figures of the 20th and 21st Centuries has died. Professor Epeli Hau’ofa passed away on Sunday, 11th January 2009. Epeli as he was known to most, was born in Papua New Guinea to missionary parents from Tonga. He grew up in PNG, Fiji and Tonga and studied in Australia and Canada. He worked in Tonga as Deputy Private Secretary to the King of Tonga before moving to Fiji where he taught sociology at the University of the South Pacific. He leaves an important legacy behind him as an internationally acclaimed philosopher and writer whose essays “Our Sea of Islands” and “The Ocean in Us” continue to transform how Pacific people understand their world. As a writer, he wrote Tales of the Tikongs and Kisses in the Nederends as well as numerous other short stories and poems. As a mentor to Pacific intellectuals, Epeli inspired several of the region’s most prominent academics. He also founded and was the first director of the University of the South Pacific’s Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture where he supported emerging Pacific artists, sculptors, writers, dancers, weavers, carvers, musicians and writers. His passing is a major loss to the intellectual and creative life of Oceania. |
||
|
|
||
