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.
For all those interested in poetry and gaining new skills, this is a workshop for you. The free workshop is led by Robert Sullivan and Courtney Meredith. Robert Sullivan is Nga Puhi and emerged as a distinctive Maori poet with his first collection, Jazz Waiata in 1990. He is a graduate of Auckland University and is now an accomplished poet who alternates relaxed, conversational narratives of everyday events with “disjointed, free-verse, experimentation, and wild bursts of verbal exuberance”. Sullivan is a qualified librarian and currently works at Auckland University Library. Courtney Meredith has over a decade’s experience in public speaking, debating, singing, spoken word and musical performance. She is a slam champion winning Auckland’s two most prestigious poetry slams – Montana and Going West. She is also an English Major from the University of Auckland, where she studied under renowned writers Witi Ihimaera and Emily Perkins, before working under their guidance on the formation of Spectrum 5, which she co-edited. The workshop runs at Fresh Gallery Otara from 6 to 9pm on Friday 11 February, 2011. To book a place, email Nicole.Lim@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.
The 2011 Pacific arts calendar kicks off with the exciting launch of Jessica Hansell’s Pholosoflygirl: Brain Map of a Pacific Misfit at the Fresh Gallery Otara in South Auckland on Thursday 27 January 2011. Philosoflygirl is a new zine-book and Hansell’s first formal collection of writings, collages, epiphanies, illustrations, obsessions, recipes, outfits and brain-waves. It provides a closer look into her tri-racial punk prose and perspectives not seen since her underground efforts, This is not a Comic and Fight the Fight. The Launch will be followed by “How To Be A Zine-Maker”, a free hands-on workshop with Jessica Hansell and Riki Anderson on Saturday 29 January. The workshop will introduce participants to the history of zine culture and the basics of researching and creating their own zine. Space is limited so registration is essential. Contact Nicole at Fresh Gallery Otara by 25 January Ph 09 271 6019 // Nicole.Lim@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz. For more information about Jessica Hansell, visit her Coco Solid website at www.CocoSolid.com. (Image: Nefertiti, 2010, by Jessica Hansell. Courtesy of Fresh Gallery Otara and adapted for publication on Pacific Starmap)
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.
The public will get a first glimpse of Victor Rodger’s much anticipated new play Village People at Auckland’s Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre. A reading of the play will be staged as work-in-progress in a short public season from 13 to 16 October 2010. Village People is about four estranged half-Samoan siblings, from all corners of the world who come to Samoa to celebrate the youngest becoming a matai and confront their difficult relationships with each other, their shared past, and Samoa itself. Rodger wrote much of the play as the first Pacific recipient of the prestigious Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury. He is the award-winning author of the acclaimed My Name is Gary Cooper and currently writes for and acts in Shortland Street, New Zealand’s longest running TV soap opera. Village People will stage alongside two other plays, Our Maoris by Arthur Meek and What to do about Dad by Stephen Sinclair. For bookings, call (09) 3082383.
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.
Much-lauded Pacific writer and poet Albert Wendt will read from his award-winning novel in verse, The Adventures of Vela, at the Going West Books & Writers festival at Waitakere City’s Titirangi War Memorial Hall on Sunday 12 September 2010 (10.30-11.15 am). The novel chronicles Samoa’s immortal song maker Vela and other divine figures, and was awarded the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for the South East Asia and the Pacific earlier this year. The reading will include a conversation with Nga Puhi poet and librarian, Robert Sullivan, in which Albert will reflect on his latest book – and a lifetime of telling and tales.
Manukau’s much-anticipated new arts facility, Mangere Arts Centre – Ngā Tohu o Uenuku, will officially open on Friday 3 September 2010. The opening will be followed by a full weekend of celebrations, with more than 40 performances featuring over 300 performers. The centre’s theatre and courtyard will be packed with activity including dance, music, comedy and poetry by acts including Kila Kokonut Krew, Tony T Band, Grace Ikenasio, Moana Ete, MBrace Pacific Dance, Anonymouz, Manukau City Concert Band and many more. The inaugural exhibition in the gallery Manu Toi: Artists and Messengers (curated by Nigel Borell) will also be open for viewing. The exhibition features an impressive line-up artists with a connection to the Mangere area, working in a range of disciplines including photography, installation art, moving image and more. For a full schedule of the opening weekend, go to www.manukau.govt.nz/mangereartscentre.
Opening celebration weekend:
When: Saturday 4 September, 10 am – 11 pm
Sunday 5 September, 12 pm – 4 pm
Where: Mangere Arts Centre – Nga Tohu o Uenuku, Corner Bader Drive and Orly Avenue
Mangere
Cost: Free
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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