Results of our Work

Success stories

New Zealand artists, arts practitioners and arts organisations have achieved success across all genres of art. From community arts projects to the international stage, Creative New Zealand supports and develops the arts for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

This section currently features a selection of recent projects, and will be updated regularly. If you have a story you would like to contribute, contact: media@creativenz.govt.nz.  

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Current features

Indian Ink Theatre Company

Indian Ink is one of New Zealand’s most successful theatre companies. Founded in 1997 by Justin Lewis and Jacob Rajan, the company has won numerous national and international awards including three New Zealand Production of the year awards and two Edinburgh Fringe First Awards. Indian Ink has toured extensively in New Zealand, breaking box office records, and their overseas tours to Australia, Singapore and Edinburgh have been both critical and popular successes. Their latest work The Guru of Chai was recently awarded ‘Best Actor’, ‘Best Composer of Music’ and ‘Best New Zealand Play’ at the 2010 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards.

Indian Ink’s reputation for ‘total theatre which offers humanity and psychological insight in a package of good plain laughs, luminous performances and brilliant staging’ (Dominion Post, NZ) has charmed audiences for more than 13 years.

Creative New Zealand first funded Indian Ink in 1996 to devise and stage Krishnan’s Dairy, the company’s first production. Over the years, Indian Ink has received funding and support to create, stage and tour five different productions. Creative New Zealand has also supported the company’s development infrastructure through funding for their producer.

International success

Indian Ink has also taken part in Creative New Zealand’s international market development programmes to great success. The ability for New Zealand’s premier artists to gain exposure at high calibre events such as the Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM) gives New Zealand artists much needed opportunities to display their work to international producers, agents, festival programmers and directors.

For Indian Ink Theatre Company their APAM showcase resulted in American agent David Lieberman signing them to his books. Lieberman, whose client roster includes Tim Robbin’s The Actors Gang and The Kronos Quartet, will be promoting Indian Ink to the North American and European markets.

Judy Millar

Visual artist Judy Millar was selected to represent New Zealand at the 2009 Venice Biennale of Art. Creative New Zealand administers and manages New Zealand’s national representation at the Venice Biennale. Millar’s stunning proposal of a grand scale work, titled Giraffe-Bottle-Gun, was selected by a panel of expert advisers, and exhibited with fellow selected artist Francis Upritchard in New Zealand’s two pavilions.

Curated by Leonhard Emmerling, Giraffe-Bottle-Gun impressed visitors to La Chiesa della Maddalena with its visceral display of oddly-shaped canvasses and impressive spatial inversions.

Millar’s success at the 2009 Biennale led to an invitation to exhibit as part of a prestigious curated show at the 2011 Venice Biennale. She was approached by Dutch curators Karlyn de Jongh and Sarah Gold to create work for Personal Structures: Time, Space, Existence. The line-up of artists Millar will be exhibiting with includes the American minimalist Carl Andre and renowned performance artist Marina Abramovic. This will be the first time a New Zealander has been asked to exhibit at the Biennale in such a context, and the exhibition in Venice will be supported by a symposium at the Venice Guggenheim, which Millar has also been asked to attend.

Ladi6

Ladi6 (Karoline Tamati) was selected to take part in Creative New Zealand’s international delegation at the Australasian World Music Expo (AWME) in 2008. Her manager Rebecca Caughey has been supported to attend AWME in 2008 and 2009 and WOMEX in 2009 and 2010.
Over the past few years, Ladi6 has enjoyed success both here in New Zealand and abroad, with London’s Metro Magazine calling her “One to Watch”. Ladi6 has also been supported by Creative New Zealand’s International Touring Fund and Pacific Arts Committee and enjoyed a a successful European tour in 2010. She has just released her second album to critical acclaim.

Mark Westerby

Mark Westerby is a producer and event manager for film, theatre, fashion and events with WestMark Productions. He is currently producer of the critically acclaimed interactive theatre production APOLLO 13: Mission Control with HACKMAN and The Storybox Project with Dnation. Westerby also works with Musicians Rhian Sheehan and Chris Prowse on their touring projects.

Previously the director of the New Zealand Fringe Festival and The Shoot Out Filmmaking Festival, Westerby is one of New Zealand's most successful performing arts producers and over the years has been supported by Creative New Zealand funding for shows and development programmes targeted at producers. Westerby was supported by Creative New Zealand to attend the Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM) and the Western Arts Alliance in 2010.

'The international touring workshops have really equipped me with the knowledge and contacts that make the transition to the international stage seem less overwhelming.

The speakers – all incredibly knowledgeable – demystified subjects like international tax, logistics, freight and visas. I have been able to directly apply the programme to … APOLLO 13 as we are currently negotiating seasons for the show in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.'

Shows produced by Westerby such as APOLLO 13: Mission Control have enjoyed popular success and critical acclaim. Premiered in October 2008 at BATS Theatre (a Creative New Zealand recurrently funded organisation), APOLLO 13: Mission Control has enjoyed successful runs in Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland and featured in the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in 2010, as well as a hugely successful season at the Sydney Opera House in March of the same year. Between October and December 2010 the show was the longest running single show ever booked at Downstage, Wellington, and played to sold-out audiences. APOLLO 13: Mission Control has won numerous Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards and Best Awards for design.

Tusi Tamasese

Tusi Tamasese is an emerging Samoan-born New Zealand filmmaker. The writer and director of short film Va Tapuia (Sacred Spaces), Tamasese received a grant from a joint application to Creative New Zealand's Pacific Arts Committee in 2006 to pay for mentoring from film industry professionals. The grant gave Tamasese his first exposure to support from industry experts, including being mentored by producer and script consultant Catherine Fitzgerald.

Tamasese and Fitzgerald have since made a privately funded low budget short film together, Va Tapuia. In 2010, with finance from the New Zealand Film Commission, the Samoan government and a private investor, their feature film, The Orator (O Le Tulafale), was shot in Samoa, in Samoan language, with a Samoan cast and story. The film is currently in post production.