Two New Zealand artists have cancelled their appearances at the major US music festival South By Southwest - over the event’s defence industry sponsors.
Wellington-based singer songwriter Vera Ellen and Georgia Not - join a slew of international performers boycotting the festival - in Austin Texas this week.
The festival has partnerships with RTX, Collins Aerospace and BAE systems - which have been linked to manufacturing and supplying weapons to the Israeli Defence Force. The US army is also a sponsor of the event.
Ellen says the band’s decision to step away came after hours of intense conversations and that every conclusion that wasn’t pulling out - left them feeling sick.
Ellen and Nott are among a group of seven Kiwi artists performing at the festival which draws more than 300,000 from around the world.
Figures from the New Zealand Fringe in Poneke, Wellington are in.
2024 saw 168 productions with 590 performances in 48 separate spaces.
900 artists sold more than 21 thousand paid tickets and more than $323,000 will be paid out to artists and venues.
The biggest visual art event in Australasia has just opened, the Sydney Biennale.
Featuring 96 artists and collectives from 50 countries, included are Aotearoa’s Pacific Sisters and Te Whā a Huna from Ngāti Tūwharetoa.
Held over multiple venues across the city, big news this year is the use of the disused and now refurbished White Bay, open to the public for the first time in 100 years.
The Biennale runs until the 10th of June.
Dismay in Poneke for book lovers. Store Good Books - which has been a strong advocate for Aotearoa writers and publishers - has gone the way of fellow Wellington book institution Vic Books, and will be closing 10 May.
They cite a tough economic environment for deciding to close.
The Lascar - the first New Zealand film to bring together Urdu, te reo Māori and English languages on screen together - has picked up an award at the Alameda International Film Festival in Oakland, California.
The 35-minute short film - set in the 1799 Aotearoa and interweaving Indian sailors, British sealers and Māori mana whenua - has previously won Best Drama Short and Best Short Film at the Indian Independent Film Festival in 2023.
Director Adi Parige was born to an Indian family in Wellington and raised in the US. The film was shot near Cape Palliser.
In a bold new move for the Auckland contemporary dealer gallery scene, Gow Langsford Gallery will be launching a new gallery space and visual arts hub in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga on 6 April.
The premises will include a suite of subsidised artist studios, and a library. The gallery say it will be one of the largest exhibition private spaces in Australasia. It opens with an exhibition that includes Shane Cotton, John Pule, and Dame Robin White.
Meanwhile, can you help find Aotearoa’s most unique gallery an inside home?
The Nomadic Art Gallery is a converted truck that transformed into a travelling art space during the 2020 pandemic, to showcase NZ and Pasifika artists.
106 artists left their visual mark on its outside but after two years as a ‘living’ sculpture at the Connells Bay sculpture park on Waiheke Island.
The truck now needs a new inside home to preserve it. Go to website www.thenomadicartgallery.org to be in touch.
Sarah Hudson has been announced as the first artist to undertake a Naoshima residency, to coincide with the prestigious Setouchi Triennale in Japan in 2025.
Hudson, alongside her solo work is known as a member of Mataaho Collective and Kauae Raro Research Collective - an organisation dedicated to the promotion and retention of Māori paint-making technologies.
The residency has been arranged with the McCahon House Trust.
This month two indigenous cultures from opposite sides of the globe are coming together to work on the revitalisation of their heritage languages, through collaborative songwriting.
Māori / Cymraeg SongHubs is hosted by APRA AMCOS NZ and supported by the British Council and the British High Commission, with the aim of developing new bilingual music to advance the understanding and usage of both te reo Māori and the Welsh Cymraeg.
Held at Big Fan Studios in Tāmaki Makaurau 25-29 March, the programme will involve three Welsh songwriters and one Welsh producer collaborating with six Māori songwriters and two Māori producers.
