Culture 101

Lulu Sun: Our leading tennis player on the rise

08 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Born in beautiful Te Anau, since age 5 tennis star today Lulu Sun has lived around the world. Formerly representing Switzerland, since 2024 she has ag...

Arts News for 2 November 2025

02 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Arts News for 2 November 2025.

All art is politics: acclaimed Australian artist Mike Parr's controversial performance

02 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

All art is politics: Acclaimed Australian artist Mike Parr's controversial performance.

Regional Wrap: working with kelp in the Waitaki

02 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Regional Wrap: working with kelp in the Waitaki.

The Dry House: Alison Bruce in her most challenging role yet

01 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Award-winning actor Alison Bruce is one of the country’s most versatile and experienced stage and screen actors.   

Tauranga Art Gallery: part of $306 million redevelopment of the city's cultural heart

01 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tauranga Art Gallery reopens in $306 million redevelopment of city's cultural heart.

Fast Favourites: TV presenter and journalist Laura Tupou

01 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fast Favourites: TV presenter and journalist Laura Tupou.

Hamish Coney: the auction of the collection of late curator Ron Brownson

26 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2023 Aotearoa lost one of its most beloved curators and supporters of contemporary photography, and Maori and Pacific art and artists, Ron Brownson...

Fiona Samuel awarded Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship

26 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Stage and screen veteran Fiona Samuel has been awarded this year's Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship by the Arts Foundation.

Regional Wrap: KOAST Art Trail with Joan Honeyfield

26 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Each week Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa for our regional wrap. KOAST Arts Trail has been taking place this Labour Wee...

Century old Maori carving completed after 115 years gifted to British people

25 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, a century-old Maori carving was restored and gifted to the British people. Carved originally in 1910, by master carver Tene Waitere, the p...

Designing spaces for parents and children: Raukura Turei and Elisapeta Heta

19 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For their latest installation Elisapeta Heta and Raukura Turei have designed a space inspired by the special space Kohanga Reo plays in their lives.

Arts Laureate 2025: Roseanne Liang honoured with Gaylene Preston Filmmaker Award

19 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This year's Arts Laureates have been announced with eight new artists being honoured and recognised for their exceptional work and their contribution ...

Regional Wrap goes to Analogue Aotearoa in Te Aroha

19 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every week on our Regional Wrap we travel to a different place around the country and, today, nestled in the Waikato below the Kaimai Ranges it's the ...

20-year-old artist wins international award for stunning night sky photography

19 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Landscape astro photographer, Tom Rae, has won the Royal Museums Greenwich Skyscapes Astronomy Photographer of the Year for a second time.

Taniwha: following the tails of our popular shapeshifting creatures

18 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From the news headlines to carving, from poetry and film to waiata and whakatauki the taniwha is a pervasive yet mysterious figure in our culture.

What to do with the old family silver?

18 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Teaspoons, teapots, trophies, vases, trays and napkin rings. Silver objects have long been prized as a way of celebrating and commemorating.

Fast Favourites: Children's author Kiri Lightfoot

18 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Children's and young-adult author, Kiri Lightfoot, has long had a love of picture books. As a teenager she would only taking babysitting jobs if there...

Turning Twizel into a film set: Show Me Shorts director Arthur Gay

12 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Show Me Shorts Film Festival turns 20 this year. It's become Aotearoa's leading international short film festival and this month there will be more th...

Restoring the power of black tapa with memories of the Tongan and English Queens

12 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1953 Queen Salote of Tonga visited England for Queen Elizabeth the Second's Coronation. At which, she is said to have won "the affection of the Bri...

Regional Wrap: Whau Arts Festival with Melissa Laing

12 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Each week Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa. Occasionally we go into the suburbs and this week we're going inner-west in ...

Touring innovative NZ theatre everywhere successfully and sustainably

12 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Shortly opening in Wellington, Tauranga and Nelson are touring works by two of this country's most well-travelled, and most acclaimed contemporary the...

Winner of Sargeson Prize: Aotearoa's largest short story competition

11 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Author Becky Manawatu has won The Sargeson Prize, the country's biggest short story competition, taking home $15,000 for her work, The Vase.

Fast Favourites with Everyday Māori's Hemi Kelly

11 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Next Friday and Saturday, the Kupu Maori Writers Festival brings together authors from across the motu to significant locations across Rotorua. 

Getting to live in your childhood dream house: Tracey Scott's remarkable colonial villa

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Did you ever have a dream house as a child? One you told your parents you wanted to be yours one day? Perhaps, like Tracey Scott's, it even had a turr...

Regional Wrap: Colville Creators and Makers Festival

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The biennial Colville Creators & Makers Festival finishes tomorrow after six days of exhibits and creative workshops. Held in Colville Hall, 30 minute...

Hawke's Bay Festival marks 10th anniversary

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hawke's Bay Arts Festival kicks off next week and it's marking its 10th anniversary.

Painting star Philip Clairmont on show for the first time in 30 years

28 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The late painter blazed a brilliant, dazzling trail across the Aotearoa New Zealand art scene of the 1970s.

The influential and revealing ways video games portray culture

28 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Culture 101 speaks to three Victoria University researchers and lecturers who look at the intersection of video games, and culture.

Regional Wrap: Ōkārito's entire town in new exhibition

28 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Artery of the Wild is on now at the Leftbank Gallery in Greymouth.

87-year-old community arts legend June Renwick

27 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Director and producer June Renwick joins Culture 101 to talk about her lifelong love of drama and why she set up the Selwyn Community Arts Theatre. ...

Locals turn Cyclone Gabrielle into art installations

27 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Facilitator and curator Dayna Raroa joins Culture 101.

Fast Favourites with singer-songwriter Julia Deans

27 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

She joins Perlina Lau to share some of her cultural picks

Staging the beloved Terry Pratchett's work at Dunedin's Globe Theatre

21 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A theatre show of the beloved Sir Terry Pratchett is currently on stage at Dunedin's Globe Theatre. Lords and Ladies has one of the Globe's largest ca...

Regional Wrap: the sculpture gardens of Kaupapakapa and Kaipara

21 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kaukapapa is a 40-minute drive North-West of Tamaki Makaurau, and a gateway to the Kaipara.

Who's in charge of telling the story of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern?

21 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

No documentary this year will likely come under as much scrutiny and discussion. Directed by Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz and on general release in...

Do hospitals have to be ugly? The history of our health design

21 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They are some of the largest and most prominent buildings in our cities and towns. Places we are all are likely to spend significant time, as family a...

The problem with dropping art history from the curriculum

21 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There has been shock and concern amongst the arts and education world following the axing of Art History from the school curriculum.

Fast Favourites with actor Nicola Kāwana

21 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nicola Kāwana has been a familiar face to Kiwi audiences for decades. A graduate of Toi Whakaari, Nicola's acting career spans film, television and t...

Innovative agency tackles instability for actors and performers

14 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Job stability and sustainability within a creative industry can be a constant battle for artists.

Manahi Pakarati: Ambassador for Chile and Rapa Nui

14 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cultural group Puku Rangi Tea from Rapa Nui Easter Island are providing a rare opportuntiy to experience their culture with performances in Blenheim, ...

Regional Wrap: The untamed and wild Hokitika

14 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The untamed and wild Hokitika is better known these days as the "Cool Little Town." Located on the West Coast of the South Island, it's about 40 minut...

Jessica Gurnsey's vibrant portrait paintings capture moments in time

14 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Art in the Park returns to the iconic Eden Park next weekend from the 18th to the 21st of September. A curated art show in a stadium setting, it'll br...

Actor Stephen Papps: playing many characters beside himself

14 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Actor and writer Stephen Papps has a remarkable ability onstage to inhabit a multitude of characters. In his latest solo work Social Animal, written w...

A new era for American Vogue

14 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's a new era at American Vogue with a new editor announced to take over from Dame Anna Wintour.

What's changed for contemporary dance in 40 years?

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This year New Zealand Dance company Footnote is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Footnote bill their story as the story of contemporary dance in Aote...

Words on the Street: Inside the role of a mobile librarian

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Across Tamaki Makaurau, there are 56 community libraries but there are also mobile libraries reaching those who can't access the public ones. These ar...

Regional Wrap: Woodville

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Enroute to the Hawkes Bay, Woodville was 100 years ago the home of one of our most famous portrait painters Gottfried Lindear and is home today to cel...

Flood-damaged Ponsonby house becomes art installation

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you visit 24 Tawariki Street in Ponsonby, Auckland - which you are being invited to do this month - you'll find a stream reemerging in the front ga...

We the Young: New youth performing arts festival

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A new performing arts festival will be taking over several venues in Auckland for two weeks this month. We The Young in Tamaki Makaurau is celebrating...

What now for public art icon Wellington's City to Sea Bridge?

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week a group opposing the Wellington City Council's decision to demolish the capital's city to sea bridge, The Wellington Civic Trust, lost a Jud...

Fast Favourites: Billy T comedian Hoani Hotene

07 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With the Billy T showcase around the corner, ahead of next year's festival and competition, this year's winner is still revelling in his victory.

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...