Culture 101
Episodes
Keeping the art and craft of bookbinding alive
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I went down something of an Instagram rabbithole this week. For some people it's watching cooking or pots being made. For me it's been bookbinding. So...
Bryan Crump reports on 2025's The Big Sing
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly a thousand choir singers converged on Ōtepoti Dunedin over the last few days as the Big Sing competition finished.
Arts news for 31 August
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Arts news for 31 August.
The phenomenal impact of Outlander
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If there's any country that understands and appreciates what film or television can do for tourism, it's us, here in New Zealand. Over the past decade...
Regional wrap heads inner-city
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
St Heliers is celebrating its first Art Festival which started this weekend and will run until the 14th of September.
Jennifer Ludlum returns to stage as fierce matriarch
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Ludlum is on stage again and this time, as a ferocious, complicated and dramatic matriarch in Silo's Mother Play. Written by American Pulitze...
Government releases long-awaited creative and culture strategy
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The government has released a creative and culture strategy to boost the industry by 2030.
Mad Men director on coming up in the new golden age of television
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you've watched any of the leading television shows in the past 25 years, it's likely Lesli Linka Glatter had a hand in directing them. Mad Men, Hom...
Regional Wrap: The Record Keeper of Geraldine
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In South Canterbury, Geraldine is home to a unique vinyl and coffee outlet called The Record Keeper. It's entirely powered by solar power and a bit of...
Seduction, debauchery and madness: Mary Shelley's birth of Frankenstein
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Following a notorious night of debauchery, English novelist Mary Shelley becomes the mother of horror. Set in Geneva in Switzerland in 1816, ATC's new...
Fast Favourites: Writer, academic and plus-size model Kaarina Parker
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Writer, academic and plus-size model, Kaarina Parker will be walking in this year's Fashion Week. It coincides with RNZ's new documentary series, Cutt...
The robots are everywhere but why treat them as human? Poet Jiaqiao Liu
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Culture 101's Mark Amery had to borrow a car this week and, while he was driving, pressed a button on the display console and a female voice startled ...
Fiume o Morte! Fascism's stranger-than-fiction poet-led first state
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For his latest blending of documentary and fiction, filmmaker Igor Bezinovic has turned the camera on a stranger-than-fiction story from the history o...
Mr Bean, but Sexy": Comedian George Fenn on pushing audience's boundaries
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Interactive Comedian George Fenn joins Culture 101 to talk about his acclaimed show, Sexy Ghost Boy
The Auckland sculptor creating giant iconic Kiwi confectionery
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Simon Lewis Wards plays with the idea of nostalgia through familiar, quotidian objects.
Regional Wrap: Oxford
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week we are heading to the North Canterbury inland town of Oxford or Tawera as it's known to Māori. Celia Wilson is an Oxford based painter, a...
Fast Favourites with Petra Bagust
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The 'hot mess' that's menopause and midlife with Petra Bagust and some of her cultural highlights.
Art News for 10 Aug 2025
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A round-up of news surrounding the arts across New Zealand.
Greening the garden city: Ōtautahi's regeneration through nature, art and gardening
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artist and landscape architect Bridget Allen wouldn't have known how appropriate the name of her gardening business was to be when she set it up, out ...
Regional Wrap goes to Hikurangi
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hikurangi, 20 minutes north of Whangarei, is an old dairy and mining town known for some of the most specular limestone formations in the region. I...
Lifting the tapu: Māori women who carve
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's commonly assumed that Māori women don't carve. Carving is a tapu occupation with its own tikanga and ritual. Women have often not been allowed t...
"Developing a project can feel like being lost in the middle of the ocean" Duncan Sarkies on the joy of discovery
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two years ago this month RNZ National's Culture 101 was launched. And a guest on our very first show, introducing comedy radio drama series The Myster...
Getting more Pasifika women into comedy: Fast Favourites with Rhiannon McCall
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pasifika people make up almost 17% of Tamaki Makaurau Auckland's population, but Pasifika women in particular are considered underrepresented when it ...
Arts News for 3 August 2025
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Arts News for 3 August 2025
Regional Wrap: Rawene
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week we are heading to the south side of the Hokianga harbour, in Northland to the town of Rawene.
How arts patronage has changed over 25 years
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As private funding organisation The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi celebrates 25 years of supporting artists, what's changed with arts patronage?
Notes from a Fish 'a surreal comedy crime caper'
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Notes from a Fish is a surreal comedy crime caper set in the murky world of the exotic fish black market.
A new generation part of the knitting renaissance
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A new exhibition in Tamaki Makaurau hosted by the New Zealand Fashion Museum is set to showcase and celebrates the art of knitting and all yarn-based ...
Richard Benge: a champion of arts access for everyone
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
30 years ago this last week organisation Arts Access Aotearoa was founded by Penny Eames to better drive access to the arts for people who can get exc...
Exploring decades of Banksy's iconic images
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Banksy's street art and graffiti is some of the most recognisable and iconic images of the modern art world. Although his work started in the 90s in B...
Regional Wrap on the Waikanae River
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week for our Regional Wrap on Culture 101 we visit the beautiful Waikanae River on the Kapiti Coast, and the settlements on its banks of Waikanae...
Exhibition exploring relationships through weaving involves more than 100 artists and children
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Weaver, sculptor and academic, Maureen Lander, is currently exhibiting at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. But as the title suggests...
Living well with bad weather: Chris Berthelsen's part in Japan's efforts to control extreme weather
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can we control the weather? Or, do we need to get better again at reading it for ourselves, rather than relying on technology?
Fast Favourites: The Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Madeleine Chapman will be stepping down from her role as editor of news and culture website The Spinoff later this year.
Staging one of the world’s greatest love stories in a 60s high-fashion thriller
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's one of the greatest and most famous love stories and we already know how it ends before it begins. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is now on stage...
Regional Wrap: Greytown with Rachael Fletcher
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Each week Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of the country for our regional wrap. Today Perlina heads to Greytown - which is celebrat...
Jo Randerson's secret art powers revealed!
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artist Jo Randerson calls them Secret Art Powers. Superpowers that everyone, individually and collectively, has access to.
From All Blacks to Arts Council: Keven Mealamu on what he can bring to board of CNZ
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most people will recognise former All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu for his sporting success but now, a decade after retiring he's gone from the All Bla...
Gareth Morgan's new giant public art park set to open in Spring
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you've travelled along Transmission Gully, north of Poneke Wellington - you might have noticed through your side window giant objects starting to p...
Arts news for 13 July 2025
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Arts news for 13 July 2025.
Decorative Arts History through Second Hand Shopping
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As avid op shoppers will know, secondhand and antique stores still turn up treasures.
International award-winning MOTAT exhibition Te Puawānanga
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
MOTAT's Te Puawānanga Exhibtion was recently named International Exhibition of the Year at the Museum and Heritage Awards in London.
Regional Wrap: Taieri with Matt Brennan
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week - we're heading south to Mosgiel - and more specifically to Taieri. Matt Brennan is starring as Inspector Pratt in Taieri Dramatic Society'...
14-year-old Kiwi ballerina wins scholarship at dream school
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Youth America Grand Prix - The YAGP is one of the world's largest competitions for ballet dancers hoping to land scholarships around the world. ...
Anthony Hoy Fong: New York-based Kiwi chef
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, the grand reopening of the Oceania Wing at the Metropolitan Musem of Art in New York saw Kiwis and locals gather to celebrate 500 years of...
Fast Favourites with war correspondent Lisette Reymer
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From a farm in Waikato to the frontlines of the Ukraine war, former Newshub Europe correspondent Lisette Reymer never expected to be using her hostile...
From whale vomit to Victorian mourning jewellery:
06 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ranging from whale vomit to Victorian mourning jewellery, Una Cruickshank's often astonishing book of essays The Chthonic Cycle meditates on the wonde...
Poetry and freshwater with Gabrielle Huria
06 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gabrielle Huria is Ngai Tuahuriri and Ngai Tahu and lives with her whanau at Tuahiwi in North Canterbury. She is part of a major new exhibition crea...
Regional Wrap: Tairua
06 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Faye Saunders is the owner of The Little Gallery in Tairua and joins Culture 101.
A radical rethink: the Victoria and Albert's new 'Museum of Absolutely Everything'
06 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Keith Moon's drum kit, a child's rocking horse, a Vivienne Westwood gown, buddhas, a slice of a '70s housing estate, the David Bowie archive: it's no ...
Brydie Colquhoun on her debut choreographic work
06 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brydie Colquhoun speaks to Culture 101 about Rongo Whakapā,
The art and history of the Haiku
06 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Evan Mantyk the Society of Classical Poets joins Culture 101.
Training the next generation of filmmakers in Miramar
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week I put on a suit. No ordinary suit. A motion capture suit, in the studios of the Victoria University of Wellington Miramar Creative Centre. I...
Exhibition showcases an era when arts education flourished
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Following WWII, there was a strong push and a solid foundation to provide arts education to both teachers and children in schools. Art advisers suppor...
Regional Wrap goes to the Māniatoto: Ranfurly
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Māniatoto plain, sits high inland in Central Otago bounded by ranges. It's known for its distinct beauty, and climate of extremes: from dry and h...
Living for five months outdoors on public land as art activism
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Home we follow artist Teiti Nepia as over the summer of 2023 and 2024 for five months she reclaims her own sense of sovereignty by camping out on p...
Saint Joan: Why Joan of Arc’s story is still relevant
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Although written in 1923 about a story from the 15th century, the themes of Saint Joan continue to be pertinent in the 21st century. George Bernard Sh...
Keeping Pūhoi Bohemia alive through song and dance
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There are small pockets globally where descendants of 19th century immigrants are working to retain the distinctive culture, heritage and language of ...
Fast Favourites with NZ Listener editor Kirsty Cameron
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Editor of NZ Listener, Kirsty Cameron, got her start in journalist at RNZ and broadcasting before moving into print where she's stayed ever since. She...
Arts news
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A look at the arts scene here & abroad.
The Art Precinct: New digital art platform using behavioural psychology
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A new digital art curation platform is hoping to be bridge the gap between artists and buyers to create personalised, cohesive and curated collections...
'The other RNZ' - the remarkable story of radio sets in Aotearoa
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
2025 marks the centenary of Radio New Zealand. Yet broadcasting is one thing, the technology to hear it another. And there was once an entirely differ...
Regional Wrap: Colac Bay with Daegan Wells
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What's at Colac Bay.
Silo's Taniwha a visual feast for young audiences
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Younger audiences are in for a visual feast at Silo's new show Taniwha opening in time for the school holidays. Featuring puppetry, live videography, ...
I Am A Dark River: the legacy of trailblazing printer Bob Lowry
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tessa Mitchell never knew her grandfather but he has cast a long shadow. Her film I Am a Dark River is about Bob Lowry - that creative and some would ...
Pretty and pink: New bookshop dedicated to spicy fiction
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Romance novels are having a moment. England's first ever romance-only bookshop opened this week in Notting Hill, London.
Arts news for 15 June 2025
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Arts news for 15 June 2025.
Bold Tahitian novelist Titaua Peu connects us back into the Pacific
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Located in the centre of the Pacific, Tahiti's closest large land mass is Aotearoa New Zealand. It is where, from Raiatea, Maori migration canoes left...
How painting pet portraits restored artist Julia Holden
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-disciplinary artist Julia Holden is better known for her live performance art, clay work and animated paintings so when she started painting pet...
Regional Wrap goes to Ōpōtiki
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A gateway to Tairawhiti East Cape from the north is the town of Ōpōtiki in the Bay of Plenty. As a creative hub local organisation Ōpōtiki Arts h...
A road movie like no other: Kath Akuhata-Brown's Kōkā
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new feature film Koka an elder Maori woman, under the celestial guidance of Matariki, makes a long journey home in a car that's seen better day...
Good Bitches Baking: New cookbook pays homage to family
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Good Bitches are still baking across the country and the collective has just released its third cookbook Familiar Foods. But it's not the classics yo...
Groundbreaking storytelling with a sculpture park you can drive through
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Te Ahu a Turanga is a new $824 million 11.5-kilometre four-lane highway connecting the Lower North Island East to West. It opened this week. it is, i...
Fast Favourites: Matariki celebrations with Ria Hall
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate Matariki, singer-songwriter, TV presenter and political candidate Ria Hall will be on stage with the Auckand Philharmonia to present a ni...
Does the underground still exist? A conversation with Samuel Te Kani
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Does an underground still exist? Or is it just one more consumer choice in an ever growing banquet of ticketed events? Testing this may be Tamaki Maka...
Regional Wrap: Titirangi with filmmaker Robin Kewell
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Each week Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of the country and we're going a bit more suburban this week to West Auckland - and the s...
Musicians fly the flag for Aotearoa at Welsh Festival
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning UK festival Focus Wales celebrates emerging talent and artists. The festival which has been running for 15 years saw more than 22 thousa...
The founders of dynamic Kia Mau and Pacific Dance New Zealand Festivals
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This month welcomes two contemporary indigenous performing arts festivals which have established themselves as cornerstones of the presentation of new...
New digital whodunnit series spotlights epidemic of image-based abuse
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A new digital whodunnit comedy series puts the spotlight on the dangers and growing epidemic of image-based abuse and bullying. Inspired by millennial...
Hello to everybody: Aotearoa's friendliest artist Sallie Culy
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If cities can be lonely places no one told artist Sallie Culy. A familiar face on the streets of inner city Poneke Wellington, Sallie counts many peop...
Fast Favourites with Miriama Kamo at Birdlings Flat
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The shortlist for the 2025 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults was announced this week and, among the titles, is a story on the them...
Arts news for 1 June 2025
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Arts news for 1 June 2025.
Australian first nations performance at Pacific Dance and Kia Mau Festivals
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This next fortnight sees the visit of indigenous performers to Aotearoa from across Te Moana Nui a kiwa -the Pacific Ocean. They are presenting works ...
Regional Wrap: the arts scene in Takapuna
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every week in RNZ Culture 101's Regional Wrap we find out about the arts scene in a place beyond our city centres. This week it's a suburb that develo...
Doing nothing becomes a competitive sport
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A competition to see who's best at doing nothing will be one of the highlights at the Melbourne Rising Festival. The Space Out event will last 90 minu...
"There's power in the circle" Global folk phenomenon Bulgarian
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1988 a choir founded in the '50s Soviet socialist era, the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir released the album Le Mystère Des Voix Bu...
Fast Favourites with Fred Award winner Angella Dravid
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Angella Dravid is this year's Fred Award winner for best show at the International Comedy Festival, taking home the iconic gumboot and a prize of 5000...
Regional Wrap: Warkworth with local Ursula Christel
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa for our Regional Wrap. This week Culture 101 heads 45-minutes north of Auckl...
Theatre show explores the monstrosity of motherhood
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There's a dark side to motherhood that can still be too taboo to talk about. It's the hidden part which can be lonely, filled with rage and the realit...
Basketball courts, drones & collage making with Petra Leary
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From Castlecliff to Thames, half court to full court, around Aotearoa artists are increasingly being commissioned to create eye-popping colourful desi...
Taking improv competitions into the workplace
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For most people, the concept of getting up on stage for improvisation is the stuff of nightmares, let alone doing it at work with your colleagues.
The close cultural favourites of indie country star Mel Parsons
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
'Post High Slide' from Ohinehou Lyttleton based singer songwriter Mel Parsons is one of several new songs released ahead of a tour of Aotearoa and Aus...
Arts news for 18th May 2025
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Arts news for 18th May 2025
Zach Dodson: How storytelling and design in computer games is changing literature
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With his teaching and his own independent game studio Zach Dodson aims to push the boundaries of narrative-driven games.
Italian Film Festival: 10 years of bringing Italy to Aotearoa
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's been 10 years of the Italian Film Festival in Aotearoa and what started out as a way for Paolo Rotondo to showcase and preserve his culture here ...
Regional Wrap: The Kahu Collective weavers of New Brighton
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today we head to to Otautahi Christchurch and the seaside suburb of New Brighton east of the city. Joining us is a Kai Tahu, Ngati Maniapoto practitio...
Sequins, studs and horsehair: getting creative with men's shoes
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Male footwear with a whole lot more creative personality is a passion of two Culture 101 guests. Tamaki Makaurau Auckland curator, artist and arts adv...
E kō, nō hea koe: Whanau, whakapapa and Mercury Plaza in debut poetry collection
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning poet and filmmaker Matariki Bennett is celebrating her debut poetry collection E kō, nō hea koe. It's been three years in the making...
Comedian Liv Ward dresses as a lobster to express love for Kim Hill
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I went into Liv Ward's debut solo comedy show in Poneke Wellington with many questions. And, after an hour of absurd theatre, they actually started ...
Fast Favourites with comedian Josh Thomson
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Josh Thomson has been in Wellington with his comedy festival show Old Mate which travels to Tamaki Makaurau this coming week. In his new set, he's com...