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.