Creative New Zealand is now accepting applications for the first round of 2011 grants. Its contestable funding guide on how to apply is now available online from the Creative New Zealand website. Pacific language translations of the funding guide information are available. Creative New Zealand will be funding the following Pacific priorities:
- Projects that preserve, develop and transmit, Pasifika heritage art forms.
- Projects that develop New Zealand Pasifika artists and contemporary arts practices.
Applications to the Quick Response Grants close this Friday 4th February (6 week decision for projects up to $7,500)
Applications to the Arts Grants also close on Friday 4th March (12 week decision for projects up to $65,000).
For further details visit www.creativenz.govt.nz or contact; Makerita Urale, Senior Programmes Adviser, Pacific Arts: makerita.urale@creativenz.govt.nz, Ph (04) 473 0880.
Playmarket in partnership with Banana Boat invite all Maori and Pasifika playwrights with complete drafts of new unproduced plays to apply for a place in creative development clinics and one-on-one labs with senior script advisors, directors, and actors. All applicants must submit a full draft of their play with cover sheet, page numbers, full character list, and the playwright’s contact details. To qualify, playwrights must be available to attend full day sessions of clinics and labs on March 7 and 8 and live in the Auckland region. All applications must be submitted via email to Jenni Heka – Maori and Pasifika Advisor at Playmarket by 18th February 2011. jenni@playmarket.org.nz . For more information, call Jenni or Stuart during office hours at the Playmarket Auckland office, 09 3652648.
Creative New Zealand and the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies are celebrating the 15 anniversary of the Pacific Artist residency at the University of Canterbury. Applications for the residency award are now invited from established traditional or contemporary Pacific Artists in the fields of textiles, ceramics, painting, sculpture and the literary and performing arts. The residency was established in 1996 and aims to provide artists with an opportunity to develop new directions in their artistic practice. It also aims to support and promote the development of indigenous Pacific art in New Zealand. To provide the recipient with the time, space and facilities to develop their artistic practice in an academic environment, the award is tenable for a period of three months. The award is worth $15,000. The Artist will be required to reside in Christchurch for the duration of the scholarship and will be expected to contribute to the Macmillan Brown Seminar series and other activities. Past recipients of the residency include Tusiata Avia (2005), Sheyne Tuffery (2006), Johnny Penisula (2007), John Ioane (2008) and Kulimoe’anga (Stone) Maka (2009). This year’s recipient was Christchurch-based actress, musician, song-writer, playwright and manager of Pacific Underground, Tanya Muagututi’a. Applications close on 28 January 2011. For more information, contact Moana Matthes at moana.matthes@canterbury.ac.nz, ph (64-3) 36402957 or visit: http://www.pacs.canterbury.ac.nz/for/artists.shtml. (9 Heavens, 2008, John Ioane. Image courtesy of Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies)
The Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Weta Workshop Award for Creativity has gone to Auckland-born and Samoa-raised Samuelu Siilata. He received the award last Friday, 19 November 2010, at a ceremony in Auckland to honour high-achieving Pacific youth. Samuelu’s creativity encompasses poetry, music, dance, painting, carving, costume, design, screenwriting and more. But his real passion is film. Speaking about his award, Samuelu said “as soon as I heard about The Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Award for Creativity and the opportunity to work at Weta, with a paid internship, I knew this was an opportunity of a lifetime. When I found out I was one of the finalists I was just blown away – the interview was conducted by Weta creators and directors, Andrew Taylor and Tania Rodger. They gave me a full tour of all the studios – it was just an amazing experience.” Samuelu loves ancient history and culture and says he wants to bring those worlds back to life through the cinematic screen: “I believe that cinema audiences are looking for novelty – you see the effects of indigenous culture in huge blockbuster films like Avatar. My goal is to tell the stories that have not been told – Polynesian stories. I want to show and share these worlds which no one has ever seen before, worlds that, say, the first European explorers such as James Cook saw them. I think that would be amazing.” In offering advice to arts graduates, Samuelu said, “there are a lot of expectations about getting a job when you’ve finished a degree – but it’s important not to lose heart. I believe there’s a season for everything so this year has been a good year to take stock.” For more on this story, visit the Auckland University website.
A paid internship at world-renowned WETA Workshops, tuition fees at Auckland University or an overseas trip are still up for grabs for three outstanding young Pacific people – but they need to act fast as time to apply is nearly up. The offers are open to winners of the inaugural Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Awards, announced last month and open for nominations until 11 October. The awards are being administered by the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, although selection is by an independent panel. “We know that there are many fabulous young leaders out there in our Pacific communities – we would really like to see as many of them as possible take advantage of this opportunity,” Ministry chief executive Dr Colin Tukuitonga says. The awards are in three categories: Creativity, sponsored by WETA Workshops, Inspiration, sponsored by globally successful software company COGITA and Leadership, sponsored by top tertiary institution the University of Auckland. Nominees need to be 17-24, of Pacific descent with New Zealand residency, and able to demonstrate community involvement, integrity, and success in one of the three award categories. The closing date for nominations is 11 October, and winners will be announced 19 November. All information, including entry forms and details of the awards, can be found at www.pacificyouthawards.org.nz.
Tanu Gago is a south Auckland-based Samoan filmmaker who has been working with Ema Tavola of Fresh Gallery Otara to produce his first solo exhibition, ‘You Love My Fresh’ which has just opened at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Manukau City. The experimental video installation explores Samoan identity, intergenerational cultural transmission and gender in South Auckland. Tanu was a contributing artist to the smallaxe09 project, a collaborative video work produced by Janet Lilo and Ema Tavola as part of the invitational exhibition profiling new art venues at Auckland’s ARTSPACE gallery in September 2009. Tanu’s short film, The Woods, also featured in the inaugural Manukau Film Festival in 2008. The exhibition is co-sponsored by Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Fresh Gallery Otara and continues at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, 13 Reeves Road, Pakuranga, Manukau City until 5 December 2010. (Image courtesy of Fresh Gallery Otara)
On the cusp of a new decade, a group of senior-level art students demonstrate what it means to create art in an environment no longer bound by rigid geographical notions of place. A large-scale multimedia exhibition opening at St Paul Street Gallery in on 9 September and running until the 24th, Make/Shift will present the viewer with the exciting array of art that is being produced by Auckland’s Pacific innovators throughout the city’s five tertiary institutions. Curator Nina Tonga says that owing to globalisation, the Pacific identity has become increasingly interconnected across traditional geographical boundaries, and these artists’ work provides an insight into art-making practices in a ‘post-colonial, post-migration, post-facebook world’. The line-up features Luke Willis Thompson, Mele ’Uhamaka, Ane Tonga, Tony Tia, Caroline Cotter, Victoria Patea, Vaimoana Eves, Selina Woulfe, Chloe Marsters and Nastashia Simeona. Make/shift is organised by the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust and opens at 5.30pm on 9 September with a special guest performance by Black Grace. Artists and curator will walk and talk about their work at 2pm on 18 September.
Celebrated Samoan actor Nathaniel Lees is looking for three or four major characters to take over to Samoa for a film written and will be directed by Tauti Tusi Tamasese. Lees is associate producer for the film and says the dialogue of the film will all be in Samoan, with subtitles, and shot entirely in Samoa between October and December this year. The characters are:
- Va’aiga: Mid – late 30’s Samoan woman. Slim, she is very asthmatic and the loss of weight is an indication of how ill she is – her illness contributes to her death in the film.
- Poto: 40 – 50 years old Samoan man . Large build. He is Va’aiga’s brother and the talking chief of the village
- Maleka: Samoan woman aged in her late 20s – early 30s. Build is open but she has had 2 children and she can be intimidating both physically and as a character.
All New Zealand based actors must obviously be fluent in Samoan. The remainder of the cast will be found in Samoa. Interested individuals should contact Nathaniel Lees at nathaniel.lees@gmail.com within the next week (by Wednesday 8 September 2010) and if possible, provide a photo of themselves.
Niu Pasifik is an exhibition of contemporary art from New Zealand and the Pacific Rim from the personal collection of curator and educator Giles Peterson. It features multi-media work including graph art, painting, drawing, animation, hip hop music video, sculpture, photography, installation, embroidery textile and street fashion. The exhibition is in its final days and closes this Sunday, 5 September, 2010 at the Mount Marua Gallery in Upper Hutt, Wellington. (Image adapted from the Expressions Arts and Entertainment Centre website)
Creative New Zealand’s third review of its Recurrently Funded Organisations (RFOs) is recommending that two feasibility studies be undertaken in the next year. The first is to look into a management company for dance and theatre companies, including Maori and Pasifika dance and theatre, to provide shared, cost-effective management and audience development services for smaller independent companies. The second study will look at a Pasifika arts development organisation to coordinate and provide capability building for Pasifika artists across a range of arts practice and to develop new audiences for Pasifika arts and artists. The review recommends that work on the feasibility of these initiatives be carried out in 2010–11 so that options can be considered by 2012, when the new multi-year investment programmes have been implemented.
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