UPDATE - Call for entry to Pacific International Documentary Film Festival of Tahiti

Updated coverage on New Zealand's Venice Biennale representation

The Asian Festival of First Films is the world's premiere Film and Documentary Festival for first time filmmakers of Asia - Pacific origin.

Calling for applications for the Wild Creations fund.

Two New Zealand short films screened in competition at the Cannes International Film Festival this year, with The Six Dollar Fifty Man, directed by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, being awarded a Special Distinction.

Writers are invited to apply for the 2009 residency at the Michael King Writers' Centre, to take place July to December 2009.

Auckland video artist Janet Lilo is the latest New Zealander chosen to be a resident artist in Sapporo, Japan, under the JENESYS residency programme.
In her first video blog, she talks about dust masks, the playground, the S-Air programme, her flat & introduces the other artists she is working with.

You can check out her video blog here.

The 2009 Auckland Writers and Readers Festival was recently featured in the New Yorker Magazine. Reporter Judith Thurman was welcomed to New Zealand and the Festival.

Here is a link to the article she wrote, describing the experience.

15 New Zealand cities and towns will this year host the annual International Film Festival which for the first time will relinquish its various regional names to be called the New Zealand International Film Festival.

New Zealand Post Book Awards announced

Established and mid-career New Zealand creative writers are invited to apply for the New Zealand Post Mansfield Prize 2010.

Auckland Theatre Company is looking for talented boys to play Oliver, the Artful Dodger and Fagin’s Gang in their end of year musical OLIVER!

Intersect, a nationwide network of Young Leaders in Sustainability, is calling for young New Zealand artists (aged 18-25) to create artwork that explores ideas around water and cultural diversity.

Jon Puka (Tokelau Islands) has been appointed to the Pacific Arts Committee.

Music lovers can now tender for their own unique work created by one of five New Zealand composers.

Celia Dunlop collection of New Zealand 250 works by 121 artists at The New Dowse

Flying Solo is an exhibition drawn from private collections within the Wellington region, featuring 18 large-scale John Walsh paintings alongside a number of his smaller works.

An exhibition at the Galerie Impaire in Paris, featuring the work of thirteen New Zealand artists and photographers, is causing a stir among the city’s "art brut" (self-taught art/outsider art) community.

A Scottish-born composer and musician who has worked with some of the world's best contemporary jazz musicians has been named as the Creative New Zealand/Jack C Richards Composer-in-Residence at the New Zealand School of Music for 2009-10.
 

'Lars og Peter', a short film funded under the old Screen Innovation Production Fund, has been accepted into the 62nd Cannes International Film Festival.

From an electric bass concerto to an Indonesian vocalist, the 16th session of NZSO-SOUNZ Readings features an amazingly wide spectrum of New Zealand music.

NZ entries in the 2009 Venice Biennale are coming back to New Zealand next year to be exhibited at Te Papa.

A specific and very delicate curiosity is about to stake itself out within The Physics Room thanks to the patient and persistent hand of Zina Swanson.

Raewyn Hill and Dancers will premiere a new contemporary dance work, Finders Keepers, on Tuesday April 28 at the Festival of Colour in Wanaka, supported by New Work funding from Creative New Zealand.

BRYN TERFEL, one of the greatest singers in the world today, has confirmed a four concert tour of New Zealand in June, his only destination in the Southern Hemisphere.

Fresh Horizons Out West is a three-day workshop for 30 nominated students from secondary schools in Waitakere city.

Readers, writers, groups and organisations are invited to nominate outstanding New Zealand writers in the three genres of poetry, fiction and non-fiction for the Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement 2009.
 

Visual artist Sara Hughes, the recipient of the 2008/09 Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Artists Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, opened her exhibition Feedback Runaway at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien.

New Zealand's largest film competition the 'V' Energy 48HOURS: Furious Filmmaking will be highly visible on cinema screens and television screens this year.

They’re coming from Karachi, Berlin, New York, Sydney, Edinburgh, Wellington, Baltimore, Washington, London, Levin, Melbourne, Timaru and just up the road: the 2009 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival is set to go off with a global bang from 13 to 17 May.

The Magma Short Film Festival is BACK in Rotorua’s Shambles Theatre this month.

Applications are now open for the AMP Scholarship Programme, established in 1998. Previous recipients range from glass artists and scientists to ballet dancers and actors.

Renowned story teller and Encounter Ritual Expert Joe Harawira, has been
invited to perform at the American Natural History Museum in New York.

MIC Toi Rerehiko in collaboration with the 2009 New Zealand International Film Festivals is pleased to announce a call for submissions for Homegrown, New Zealand’s première showcase for local short films, video and animation.

Brand new research on New Zealanders arts attitudes, attendance and participation.

ARTS ARE PART OF LIFE FOR NEW ZEALANDERS

New Zealanders and the arts: Attitudes, attendance and participation in 2008, Ngā iwi katoa ō Aotearoa me ngā mahi toi: he tirohanga āhua, rātou I tae atu, rātou I whai waahi I roto I te tau 2008

World Cinema Showcase taking place in Wellington & Auckland

The World Cinema Showcase is on in Wellington and Auckland this month of April. The best 'arthouse' films of the past year, including Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Class will be gracing the screens of The Paramount (Wellington) and Academy (Auckland) cinemas

The Big Idea | Te Aria Nui is proud to launch the new online home for New Zealand's creative community.

New Zealand opera star Wendy Dawn Thompson – now a major name overseas – returns to New Zealand in May to cast aside her usual “witches, bitches and britches” roles for that of Isabella, the feisty heroine in Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers.

First show of three in the series Pick of the Fringe at Downstage Theatre.

The 7th Pacific International Documentary Film Festival is calling for entries to its 2010 edition.

The Hamburg Animation Awards is inviting animators from New Zealand to enter their work for the 6th Hamburg Animation Awards to be held on 25 June 2009.

Outrageous Fortune star Antonia Prebble will make her stage debut in Auckland Theatre Company’s SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER from April 30.

The New Zealand String Quartet is in Washington, DC this week for a performance in the legendary Library of Congress series on Friday.

Visual artist Sara Hughes, the recipient of the 2008/09 Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Artists Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, has an exhibition opening at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien on Thursday 26th of March 2009.

Judy Millar, one of the two New Zealand artists exhibiting at the prestigious 53rd Venice Biennale, has secured a new venue at La Maddalena church.

New Zealand’s Mo Zhi Hong takes Best First Book Prize for South East Asia and the South Pacific in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2009

Nine works by bronze sculptor Megan Ransom will feature in Voyeur, an exhibition aimed at Wellington’s alternative and artistic communities, opening at S & M's Cocktail Bar in Cuba Street on 27 March

If you are a post-secondary Mäori student studying in the arts then Te Waka Toi want to hear from you by the end of March 2009

Te Uhi a Mataora – Toi Maori Aotearoa, a collective of the country’s top Maori Ta Moko Artists, to display their talent and skills at this years WOMAD festival

Celebrated Māori musician Whirimako Black is the winner of the Best Jazz Album for 2008.

Creative New Zealand has conditionally offered $125,000 to Downstage Theatre Trust (of $250,000 sought) to support its programme over the period 1 July to 31 December 2009.

My Brilliant Divorce, a wittily observant, achingly funny and heart-wrenchingly real one-woman tour de force.

When plastic tiki replace pounamu pendants and tekoteko panels are made out of computer keyboards, can these objects retain their cultural integrity? Is synthetic still authentic?

Modern, sexy, sassy, fun – The NBR New Zealand Opera’s daring new production of The Italian Girl in Algiers, opening in May, is opera as you have most likely never seen it before.

This year Creative New Zealand has initiated a national research project that will look at the health of Māori heritage arts.

Change of venue for Judy Millar's Exhibition at the Venice Biennale

Two new potential venues are being explored for New Zealand artist Judy Millar's exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

Two Screen Innovation Production funded films, An Ordinary Person and Shustak have received awards at the recent DOCNZ film competition

Jeffry Feeger has been announced as the successful recipient of the inaugural Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust and Pacific Cooperation Foundation Artist Residency 2009

Creative New Zealand is changing its contestable funding systems in February 2009.  Watch our public presentations here.

The New Zealand International Arts Festival announced today that it has a new executive director, Sue Paterson. 

Street art spreads through the galleries, walls and courtyard of TheNewDowse in Common Ground, a collaborative exhibition from Germany’s Via Grafik and NZ’s own Cut Collective.

27 of New Zealand’s most outstanding young musicians will assemble in Nelson on 7^th February for the annual Adam Summer School. 

Lisa Chappell and Mike Edward star in The Thirty-Nine Steps, the hilarious whodunit thriller and quick-change comedy adaptation of John Buchan’s classic spy novel which opens Auckland Theatre Company’s 2009 season at the Maidment Theatre on February 12.

The SEEyD Theatre Company returns with Turbine to Downstage Theatre

A one-man-does-all musical extravaganza with 15 instruments, 1 vegetable and so many possibilities!

Seresin Estate has highlighted its commitment to the arts and creative endeavour with the development of an annual writer's residency.

Creative New Zealand is calling for applications for the International Writing Program, University of Iowa Writers’ Residency 2009.

Two writers have been selected for residencies at the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Devonport, Auckland, in early 2009.

They are prominent Wellington poet, fiction writer, editor and biographer, Vincent O’Sullivan, and Dunedin writer and poet, David Eggleton.

Playmarket has announced an exciting programme that provides a rare and vital opportunity for the national theatre industry to come together to share ideas around new New Zealand work in March 2009.

New Zealand venues chosen for prestigious Venice Biennale

Creative New Zealand has secured venues for the New Zealand exhibitions at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

Painter Judy Millar’s large scale installation will herald the re-opening after 30 years of the regal Sant’ Antonin church and sculptor Francis Upritchard’s will be housed in the exquisite Fondazione Claudio Buziol on one of the main walking routes from Venice’s busy train station. 

Announcement of new Smash Palace Initiative

Creative New Zealand and the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology are pleased to announce that there will be a new round of the Smash Palace initiative occurring between 2009 and 2011.

For chamber music fans Christmas is possibly a lesser excitement on the calendar than the approaching Adam Chamber Music Festival, scheduled to start in Nelson on January 23.

Applications are now open for the Creative New Zealand Toi Oahu Residency at the University of Hawaii. The two month residency is open to established Maori artists in the fields of visual arts and craft/ object art.

Arts Access Aotearoa is seeking nominations for the Big ‘A’ Awards 2009, presented every year to celebrate the outstanding achievements of individuals and organisations enhancing the artistic lives of marginalised people in New Zealand.

The most comprehensive display of Darcy Lange’s Work Studies in Schools has opened at Ikon in Birmingham, UK.

Le Folauga: the past coming forward - Contemporary Pacific Art from Aotearoa New Zealand is the first exhibition of contemporary Pacific art from New Zealand to be shown in a major fine arts museum in Asia.

ARTSPACE, The Physics Room and Enjoy Public Art Gallery are pleased to announce that Auckland based artist John Ward Knox is the winner of the National Drawing Award 2008.

Writer and former children’s librarian Bill Nagelkerke, Children’s Literature Consultant Rosemary Tisdall, and children’s editor and career bookseller Jenni Keestra, are the three people who have been chosen to judge the 2009 New Zealand Post Book Awards.

The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) is giving an artist the opportunity to live and work on a regional park through its Artist in Residence project.

Visual artists and other creators including writers, composers and choreographers are invited to apply.

The Arts Foundation of New Zealand, Principal Sponsor Forsyth Barr, and Freemason’s New Zealand are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2008 Arts Foundation of New Zealand New Generation Awards. Five artists have each received $25,000 and been recognised for their early achievements at the Awards, held in Christchurch on Monday evening, 24 November.

New Zealand's Pacific artists were honoured at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards 2008 in Manukau City tonight. The awards are an opportunity for Creative New Zealand to encourage and celebrate excellence in Pacific arts in New Zealand.

Two Wellington artists - Wendy Randall of Vincents Art Workshop and Athina Moisa of Pablos Art Studio - are exhibiting their work in Auckland for the first time at a new exhibition at Objectspace from 15 November to 20 December.

The Michael King Writers' Centre is calling for applications for two short residencies at the centre in the historic Signalman's House in Devonport, Auckland, in early 2009.

New Zealand choreographer, Raewyn Hill, will premiere a new contemporary dance work in the inaugural Asia Pacific Dance Platform, as a part of the 37th Hong Kong Arts Festival in February 2009.

Following discussions between Creative New Zealand and Downstage Theatre Trust, Creative New Zealand will cease recurrent funding of Downstage Theatre from 30 June 2009.

Chart-topping American jazz greats will headline a stunning international line-up of artists planned for the new Wellington Jazz Festival in March 2009.

Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission are pleased to announce a new fund for filmmakers called the Independent Filmmakers Fund (IFF).

San Francisco residents who visited the Toi Māori exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco this past weekend (10 - 12 October) had not forgotten the iconic image of the Māori waka sailing under Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in 2005 with Māori Art Meets America.

Creative New Zealand is inviting tenders for a major research project that will consider and gauge the health of Māori heritage artforms across the country. The Health of Māori Heritage Arts is one of three research projects identified for completion in the Creative New Zealand Strategic Plan 2007-2010.

Writer David Young has been awarded the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writers' Residency.  Based at the University of Hawai'i's Centre for Pacific Studies, the three month residency is a partnership between Creative New Zealand, Fulbright New Zealand and the University of Hawai'i.

Three of New Zealand‘s most celebrated writers - WH (Bill) Oliver, Lloyd Jones and Elizabeth Smither were honoured at tonight's 2008 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement at Premier House in Wellington.

Each writer receives $60,000 in recognition of their significant contribution to New Zealand literature. The Awards are administered by Creative New Zealand.

Over 300 supporters from around the country converged on the Wellington Town Hall last night (Saturday) to celebrate the achievements of the recipients of Ngā Taonga Toi a Te Waka Toi - awards from Te Waka Toi, the Māori arts board of Creative New Zealand, the only national awards dedicated to Māori arts.

Talented Christchurch double bass player Annabella Leslie has been awarded the Jack McGill Music Scholarship it was announced today. Managed by Public Trust and administered by Creative New Zealand, the Scholarship is worth $15,500.

Reuben Friend has been awarded the Creative New Zealand-Blumhardt Foundation Curatorial Internship for 2008-09.

Based at The NewDowse in Lower Hutt the internship provides an important opportunity for an emerging curator or artist to develop curatorial skills and experience on an exhibition project focusing on the decorative arts and design. 

Applicants must be New Zealand citizens, or New Zealand residents, and should be writers whose work has already been published and well received.

The project proposal submitted by the writer may be in any genre: fiction, children's fiction, poetry, drama, biography, other literary non-fiction, or art topics.

Two writers have been selected for residencies at the Michael King Writers' Centre in Devonport, Auckland, over the next five months.

One of the authors, Professor Richard Corballis from Palmerston North, will be researching and writing a major biography of leading New Zealand playwright, Bruce Mason.

New Zealand artist Sara Hughes is the recipient of the 2008/09 Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Artists Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. The biennial 12-month residency provides an opportunity for visual artists to work on their approved project, gain professional development, build international networks and generally increase awareness of New Zealand visual arts.

NZ Van Lines won the 2008 Creative New Zealand Award for Bravery for its partnership with the Royal New Zealand Ballet. The removals company has provided transportation and direct cash sponsorship to the Ballet for 22 years, and provided transport for the Royal New Zealand Ballet's 2007 tour to China.

Visual artist Jim Vivieaere (New Zealand Cook Island Māori) is the recipient of the 2008 Creative New Zealand Pacific Arts Committee and National University of Samoa Artist in Residence, based at the National University in Apia, Samoa. The residency is for a period of three months from mid August 2008 until mid November 2008.

 A short story collection written in Te Reo Māori made history last night, winning the Māori Language prize at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Charlotte Grimshaw has proven that literary talent runs in families, by winning the Montana Medal for fiction or poetry for her short story collection, Opportunity.

A short story collection written in Te Reo Māori made history last night, winning the Māori Language prize at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Creative New Zealand, in association with NZMC (New Zealand Music Commission), is supporting a presence at the World Music Expo in Seville, Spain in 2008.

The Blumhardt Foundation, Creative New Zealand and TheNewDowse are calling for applications for the 2008 Blumhardt Foundation / Creative NZ Curatorial Intern.

Two New Zealand artists - Judy Millar from Auckland and Francis Upritchard from Christchurch - will represent New Zealand in a six month exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale - widely recognised as the most significant event on the international visual arts calendar.

The Michael King Writers' Centre is calling for applications for two six-week writers' residencies based at the centre in the historic Signalman's House, Devonport, Auckland.

Dame Fiona Kidman has been awarded the $100,000 Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship to write three projects; a collection of short stories and two novellas exploring early writers in New Zealand.

The Pacific Arts Committee of Creative New Zealand is seeking nominations for the Arts Pasifika Awards 2008, which celebrate Pacific artists across a range of artforms and career stages. The closing date for nominations is 5pm, Friday 27 June 2008.

Creative New Zealand has selected a combination of accomplished and emerging artists from within the Māori and New Zealand based Pacific communities to attend the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts in Pago Pago, American Samoa in July 2008.

Creative New Zealand is calling for nominations for a new representative from the Cook Island community for appointment to its Pacific Arts Committee.

Readers, writers, groups and organisations are invited to nominate outstanding New Zealand writers in the three genres of poetry, fiction and non-fiction for the Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement 2008.

Established and mid-career New Zealand creative writers are invited to apply for the New Zealand Post Mansfield Prize 2009.

The Pacific Arts Committee of Creative New Zealand, in partnership with The National University of Samoa, is calling for applications from artists to undertake a residency at The National University of Samoa in Apia, Samoa.

2008 looks set to be a busy year for Christchurch based singer-songwriter Ariana Tikao (Kai Tahu). As well as launching her second album Tuia and arranging a national tour for later in the year, Ariana has been awarded a $10 000 Creative New Zealand grant that will enable her to take up the position of Musician in Residence at the Centre for New Zealand Studies, at the University of London, Birkbeck during March and April 2008.

New Zealand-based Pacific writers wishing to work on a project exploring Pacific identity, culture or history are invited to apply to the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writers' Residency. The residency will run for three months from mid August 2008 at the Centre for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaii.

New Zealand visual artists currently working or exhibiting in New Zealand are invited to apply to Creative New Zealand for an international residency to be undertaken in September 2008 at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.

If you are a post-secondary Māori student studying in the arts then Te Waka Toi want to hear from you by the end of March 2008.

Sixteen artist/curator teams have applied to represent New Zealand at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

Expressions of Interest closed on Thursday 14 February.

Rotorua artist, June Grant (Te Arawa, Ngati Tuwharetoa, Tuhourangi, Ngati Whaio) has been selected to undertake a two and a half month artist's residency at Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington.

Creative New Zealand is reminding artists and curators that they have just over one week to prepare and send in their expressions of interest for the Venice Biennale, 2009.

Dunedin author Neville Peat has been awarded the $100,000 Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship to write a major work about the Tasman Sea.