Culture 101

Arts News for Sunday 3 March

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

News from Aotearoa and abroad

NZ Artist Simon Denny in Berlin and New York on NFTs, meta landscapes and space colonies

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Berlin-based New Zealand artist Simon Denny’s work has long explored the culture of new technology and the dreams tech entrepreneurs sell us.    ...

Regional wrap: Tauranga arts groups face up to 300% rent increases

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Artists in Tauranga recently took a creative response to comment on the City Council's Long Term Plan, which proposes steep rental increases for commu...

The Waikato Wars: What painter Richard Lewer didn’t learn at school

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Pōneke hangs an enormous New Zealand flag upon which artist Richard Lewer has painted the words: “To have a...

How to Have Sex: rising British acting star Mia McKenna-Bruce

02 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

British coming-of-age drama, How to Have Sex has found a new way to tackle the issue of sexual consent. It’s strangely both nostalgic and very uncom...

Tackling climate change with bonkers creative ideas: inventor artist Steve Mushin

02 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Habitat-printing robot birds, water-filtering sewer submarines, and flying bikes launched on waste heat thermals are just a few of the 100-plus bonker...

Fast Favourites: Kiwi Actor Yoson An in modern Aussie rom-com

02 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Yoson An’s career (Mulan, The Luminaries, Dead Lucky, Creamerie)  has been steadily on the rise and impressively, he’s played a wide range of cha...

Best of the Fest #2: a morning rave, the Savage Coloniser, Witi’s Wahine, The National, Soweto Gospel and the mighty Waikato

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is it with tall people up the front at gigs? Should morning raves replace gym sessions? Joining us this week on Best of the Fest are writers Emil...

Best of the Fest #1: taniwha time machine, aerial displays and a slightly isolated dog

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

RNZ Culture 101 presents the first episode online and on-air of Best of the Fest - a brand new five-week 30 minute panel discussion series.  Hosts P...

‘Swiftonomics’ - the unparalleled influence of Taylor Swift

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Whether you’re a Swiftie or you’re rolling your eyes, you can’t deny the influence of Taylor Swift. She is inescapable and it feels as though sh...

Arts News for 25 February 2024

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Arts News for 25 February 2024

Regional Wrap: Waikato with Louisa Drummond

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every week Culture 101 speaks to a creative correspondent to gauge the cultural pulse of Aotearoa’s regions. Speaking from Kirikiriroa as the Hamil...

‘The wind whistling you in behind the springtime’: celebrated Irish musician Lisa O’Neill

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Acclaimed Irish singer songwriter Lisa O’Neill has been enjoying some wider attention lately for two reasons. Firstly, a spellbinding rendition of ‘...

Reinventing the savage club as SaVĀge K’lub with performance artist Rosanna Raymond

24 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Savage Club started in London in 1857 and was a ‘gentleman’s club’ dedicated to the arts and literature. Eventually, it was established thro...

A thoroughly modern Māori cabaret

24 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Cabaret Thoroughly Modern Māui stemmed from a conversation between musical theatre performer Rutene Spooner and actor Jennifer Ward-Lealand. 

Sculpture on the islands of Waiheke and Venice: fast favourites with Brett Graham 

24 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A group of acclaimed Maori artists have been selected to exhibit as part of the centrepiece international exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale ...

Kōpū: Leaving white feminism at the door

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A theatre show at this year’s Hamilton Arts Festival was inspired by an incident and debate at Waitangi in 2021. 

Bringing the dance floor to the poetry book: Sylvan Spring’s Killer Rack

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Poetry and music at their best share a trick: the ability to be both celestial and grounded; dealing with the particulars of our lives, yet moving int...

From Christopher Walken to JLo: the best ads of Super Bowl 2024

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Super Bowl 58 was held in Las Vegas this year with the Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the San Francisco 49ers. The event has become a cultural ...

Regional Wrap: Kaikoura with Te Awhina Rangimarie Arahanga

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every week Culture 101 speaks to a creative correspondent to gauge the cultural pulse of Aotearoa’s regions. This week, we’re in Kaikoura with wr...

Kristen Ng: bridging Aotearoa and China’s musical undergrounds 

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kristen Ng aka electronic artist Kaishandao has been touring Aotearoa this summer in support of her beat-filled album Homeland. She describes it as an...

A shaky time for Aotearoa’s International Film Festival

17 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s one of the great cultural events of Aotearoa New Zealand – certainly one of the longest established: Whānau Mārama New Zealand Internation...

Fast favourites: Billy T winner Abby Howells

17 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

2023 Billy T winner Abby Howells is taking her award winning show La Soupco to the Hamilton Arts Festival. 

An unlikely musical fusion: India Meets Ireland

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It was love at first sight, or sound rather, for tabla master Basant Madhur, and Irish guitarist and bouzouki player Jon Sanders.

Maureen Lander: weaving with string games and Te Rā our oldest sail

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This weekend at Auckland Museum there is a rare overnight wananga to share matauranga Māori knowledge around an extraordinary object: Te Rā, the onl...

Regional Wrap: Winton with Deow of South Sea Spray Festival 

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every week Culture 101 heads to a creative correspondent out around the motu to gauge the cultural pulse of Aotearoa’s regions.  This week: Māori...

Lunar New Year: celebrations with paediatrician, poet and playwright Renee Liang

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Aotearoa, families celebrate the Lunar New Year in a variety of ways, says paediatrician, poet and playwright Renee Liang. For her own family, C...

Arts News Sunday 11 February 2024

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our wrap-up of the week's arts and culture news.

Queer comedian Jess Karamjeet: Redundant and living with a hidden disability

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Comedian and writer Jess Karamjeet is hoping her love of Neighbours will be the Trojan horse for her new show Redundant.

Neil Finn: 'Music will save the world'

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"We're all trying to kind of find some sound that links us together," celebrated New Zealand musician Neil Finn tells Culture 101 in an upcoming inter...

The future of arts funding with Creative New Zealand boss Stephen Wainwright 

04 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Aotearoa’s central arts funding body, Creative New Zealand, is majorly overhauling its funding structure, with eight new funds to open between March...

Arranging 110 chairs from 170 years: Objectspace's Kim Paton

04 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What can chairs reveal to us about our history? There are sure to be seats in the new Objectspace exhibition and book The Chair: A story of design an...

Arts News Sunday 4 February 2024

04 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Arts and culture news from RNZ's Culture 101.

When does protest become art? Defacing an English version of the Treaty of Waitangi  

04 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The activists who defaced an English version of Ti Tiriti o Waitangi at Te Papa last year planned their actions very carefully, says Cally O’Neil...

Pride: Playwright Sam Brooks on queer storytelling

03 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Prolific playwright Sam Brooks has not one, but two plays premiering in Wellington and Auckland in February for Pride. 

Performance art with Dad: Tame Iti’s son Toi Iti

03 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different region to get the latest on the arts and culture scene. This week we’re at Waitangi. 

Fast Favourites: Kiwi actor Morgana O’Reilly cast in White Lotus

03 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kiwis will be watching the next season of White Lotus even more closely, following the casting of New Zealand actor Morgana O’Reilly (Housebound, Me...

Pump up a 1990 jam with playwright Albert Belz

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It may be 2024, but playwright Albert Belz (Ngati Porou, Ngā Puhi, Ngati Pokai) wants you to stretch like it's 1990. Dedicated to the pump of aerob...

WATCH: Immerse yourself in Alan Parkinson’s giant inflatable cathedral

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

RNZ Culture 101 takes you behind the scenes and on a tour inside a giant bouncy castle complex with a difference.

Culture 101 Arts News January 28 2024

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

News in the past week from the arts and culture sector

Regional Wrap: Te Tairawhiti with Tama Waipara

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Each show, Culture 101 visits a different region to find out what's going on in the arts and culture scene. For our first show back this year, we're ...

Pub Choir brings mass singing to Aotearoa

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone can sing. Not necessarily well, but everyone has the ability. The phenomenon Pub Choir has taken this idea and combined singing with comedy a...

Pring It On! A Polyfest parody hits the stage

27 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For teenagers who grew up in the 2000s, Bring It On (2000) was a VHS and DVD staple. It would, without fail, be brought out during sleepovers. It felt...

H.R. The Musical - putting office culture on stage

27 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us at some point have worked for a company with an HR (Human Resources) Department. We’re familiar with the jargon and usually have brushes ...

Witi Ihimaera on the massive rise to come of Māori culture in 2024

27 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Witi Ihimaera joins Mark Amery on Culture 101 to play ‘Fast Favourites’ - sharing some of his favourite current Aotearoa artists and cultural mom...

The year that was: best of Aotearoa culture 2023

17 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Joining Mark Amery and Perlina Lau on Culture 101 to consider the year that was and pick some cultural highlights are Erin Harrington in Ōtautahi Chr...

Regional Wrap: creative Kerikeri 

17 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the summer break starts, many New Zealanders will be heading to the warmer climes of Te Tai Tokerau Northland and a town known for its arts, cultur...

‘Don’t look behind you!’ A history of folk horror with Kier-La Janisse

17 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The phenomenon and history of folk horror has been explored in a new documentary, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (2021) screening at City Gallery W...

Bruce Mason Playwriting Winner: Tainui Tukiwaho

16 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Actor, director, producer and writer, Tainui Tukiwaho (Te Arawa, Tūhoe) is the recent winner of the 2023 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. Known for rol...

Connecting to our landscapes through artist Marilynn Webb

16 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When we talk about the pioneering generation of modern Māori artists, the names most typically heard are men: Ralph Hotere, Sandy Adsett, Selwyn Wils...

Fast Favourites: Grace Palmer on landing an American sitcom

16 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Each week Culture 101 invites a guest to share their cultural favourites and shout-out to other artists. This week it’s former Shortland Street and ...

Dame Anne Salmond: connecting people through culture

10 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The journey anthropologist and award-winning writer Dame Anne Salmond has made into Te Ao Māori as a Pākehā over 50 years - creating a bridge for o...

Regional Wrap: Motueka with Donna McLeod

10 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every week on Culture 101 we check the pulse of a different area of Aotearoa. This week, we’re in Motueka with Donna McLeod. 

Ngahuia Harrison: the consequences of cannibal capitalism on the land

10 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In her major exhibition Coastal Cannibals at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi, with a camera, Ngahuia Harrison offers different views on our lands...

Renowned Chinese haute couture designer Guo Pei in Aotearoa

09 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Just a glimpse of Guo Pei’s magnificent gowns reveal her vivid imagination. 

Fast Favourites: Paul Goldsmith, Aotearoa's new Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage 

09 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In former government minister Chris Finlayson’s 2022 book Yes Minister he wrote that “The primary responsibility of a National minister for arts, ...

Fixing the desperate state of arts and culture coverage in the media

03 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On the brink of collapse - that’s the stark portrayal of the state of the arts media in a new report New Mirrors, commissioned by Creative New Zeala...

Manu Vaea: the spiritual and mundane in being fakaleitī - Tongan third gender 

03 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Koe Tau’atāina o e Leitī  (The Freedom/ Emancipation of the Leitī), Tongan New Zealand artist Manuaha’apai Vaeatangitau (or Manu Vaea for s...

Regional Wrap: Marton building turns into an ‘unsettling immersive’  sculpture  

03 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2021 artist Isabella Loudon returned to her family home in the town of Marton Tutaenui in the lower North Island to recover from glandular fever. ...

Kauae Raro Research Collective's passion for earth pigments

03 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Raro Research Collective's passion for earth pigments

Celebrating traditional Fijian hair practice from a Wairarapa farm

02 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The buiniga is a traditional Fijian unisex hairstyle. Similar to the afro, but more sculpted, it’s become a source of national pride. Increasingly y...

Moutere valley jeweller wins gold at Florence Biennale

02 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A New Zealand jeweller has won big at the XIV Florence Biennale Exhibition and Awards, taking first prize for Jewellery Art and Design.

Fast Favourites: The Brokenwood Mysteries star Fern Sutherland

02 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Actor and star of The Brokenwood Mysteries Fern Sutherland has just wrapped her 10th season on the television detective drama. A feat for any show in ...

Madison Kelly’s call and response with the kakī

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The black stilt or kakī is one of the world's most endangered birds. It is central to the latest work of Kāi Tahu Otepoti artist Madison Kelly’s n...

Ōtautahi’s whiskey-chasing advocate for mental health and poetry

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On the back cover of his recently published first book of poems, Crackle in the Rain, Ciaran Fox describes himself as a whisky-chasing sensualist, poe...

Culture 101 Arts News Sunday 26 November

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Arts news this week as read on the show.

Gamblers, monks and courtesans: a fifth century play in 2023

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Prayas Theater is bringing the masterpiece, The Clay Cart or Mricchakatika to stage in an adaptation for modern audiences.

Ōtautahi’s great inner-city cultural revitalisation

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A panel with Michael Bell, Steph Walker and Kiri Jarden. It’s almost 13 years since the devastating earthquake of 22 February 2011, which forced 70 ...

Using AI photography to reconnect with humanity

25 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Whether you like it or not, the age of AI is here.  In his latest exhibition Legacy, photographer Jon Carapiet uses AI technology to reanimate curre...

‘Anything can be art’ an eight year old artist and curator’s Ōtautahi exhibition

25 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Artist Pia Hill was four when she held her first group exhibition as a curator, in her bedroom. The Bat Show raised hundreds of dollars towards these ...

Snort: the end of an era

25 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the end of an era. A Snort era. What was supposed to be one month, became one decade. The weekly improv comedy show in Tamaki Makaurau which qu...

Dr Huhana Smith: the quiet revolution in Māori art

19 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Huhana Smith (Ngāti Tukorehe) was the first graduate from Toioho ki Apiti with a Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts in 1998. She now holds a PhD in M...

A ‘Māori Elite’ tours the nation

19 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Living in the Kāpiti Coast town of Ōtaki, where he runs a gallery and shop with his wife Mia Brennan, Hohepa 'Hori' Thompson says his art and expres...

Culture 101 Arts News: November 19 2023

19 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Culture 101 Arts News: November 19 2023

Sweeping up the road tacks: cycling performance artist Marcus McShane

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Marcus McShane’s latest experiment is to employ his cargo bike as a mobile video projection unit, screening commissioned audiovisual animation onto ...

The time warp turns 50: Rocky Horror’s Richard O’Brien and his Kingdom of Bling

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It is 50 years since The Rocky Horror Show premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London. 

Tana Tupai on making Pasifika music symphonic

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The NZSO will accompany an 80-strong choir this week in a celebration of Pasifika music, combining symphony with songs from the Pacific.

Dr Rebecca Rice: our early colonial women botanical artists recovered

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Rebecca Rice, Curator in Historical New Zealand Art has been rethinking Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial visual culture, and her current research ...

From lighthouse keepers to taxi drivers: publishing lesser read voices with Adrienne Jansen

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are many books about lighthouse keepers. And many iconic images of lighthouses on our coastline. Yet the lighthouse keeper was pretty much made ...

Greta Anderson’s strange, psychically charged images of the ordinary

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Spooky, beautiful, yet funny, Greta Anderson’s photography transforms day into night, while invasive flora and domestic objects glow with spiritual...

Regional Wrap: Ōtepoti Dunedin with Pip Laufiso

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Each week Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different region around the motu - for our regional wrap.  This week we're in culture-rich Ōtepoti, D...

Celebrity Treasure Island winner James Mustapic goes back to school

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“Sharpen your pencils and limp your wrists, Queer Academy is upon us.”

Irish chef in Japan breaks world record for non-stop cooking

11 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Records are made to be broken right? 

Making Moriori and Rēkohu Chatham Island culture contemporary 

11 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Born and raised in Rēkohu, the largest of the Chatham Islands, musician and storyteller Ajay Peni is a young ambassador for the revitalisation of Mor...

Fast Favourites with Te Kohe Tuhaka

11 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every week on Culture 101 we invite a guest to share their love of culture and shout out to other artists. This week it's actor, director and producer...

Turning 50: Hannah Playhouse, Playmarket and director Murray Lynch

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Three theatre institutions are celebrating 50th anniversaries this year.   

Phil Dadson on Jim Allen: NZs centenarian father of arts experimentalism and education

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A pioneer artist across the ‘60s and ‘70s and one of the most influential arts educators of his generation,  Jim Allen passed away just shy of tu...

Pacific Arts Aotearoa recorded: Lana Lopesi in conversation with Susana Lei'ataua

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An ambitious new book - Pacific Arts Aotearoa - has been released, spanning six decades of multi-disciplinary contributions from Pacific artists to...

Regional Wrap: Raglan’s Karin Bettley 

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Karin Bettley tells Culture 101 about how her love of creative life in the coastal town of Raglan. 

Former Vogelmorn Bowling Club now a trailblazing community cultural centre

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An annual Spooky Disco means Halloween proves the busiest day of the year for a community and arts centre established on the green and surrounding bui...

Our birds and landscapes defined: the complex cultural legacy of painter Don Binney

04 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the handsome just released book Don Binney Flight Path Gregory O’Brien tracks the avian-like swoops in the career of the late Tāmaki Makaurau pa...

Jon Toogood: 'In a solo show, I can actually talk to people in the room'

04 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

He’s best known for fronting rock band Shihad, but musician Jon Toogood says playing acoustic solo shows is now where he feels most “human”.

American slime mould tours Aotearoa

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

American slime mould tours Aotearoa creating giant kinetic sculpture of rubbish

Regional wrap: Wairoa's Denise Eaglesome-Karekare

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The name of the northern Hawkes Bay river town of Wairoa has been translated as "the long water which bubbles, swirls and is uneven". That certainly b...

Making visible the relationship between hard labour and the Pacific: John Vea and Jasmine Togo-Brisby

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While other kids went to kindergarten, when he was a small child Tongan New Zealand artist John Vea was on the factory floor where his father worked. ...

Small, precious and shiny new: Kāpiti Coast regional gallery opens

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Toi Mahara gallery director Janet Bayly offers the whakatauki: ‘ahakoa he iti he pounamu’, when she speaks of the Kāpiti Coast’s regional Galle...

Ballet legend Sir Jon Trimmer remembered by young and old close to him

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week saw the passing of a legend in the arts in Aotearoa. Sir Jon Trimmer, arguably New Zealand’s most beloved dancer has died aged 84. With h...

Fast Favourites: Dr Mike Joy on the role of artists in preventing ecological collapse

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Freshwater ecologist, environmental science researcher and activist Dr Mike Joy is a well known outspoken voice in the need for our society to make ra...

All Buttons Great and Small: Lucy Godoroja

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lucy Godoroja unfastens the miniature world of wonder and the surprising history of the button. In her book, All Buttons Great and Small. 

Rosie Dawson-Hewes' art table for others in Tauranga

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Culture lover and curator Rosie Dawson-Hewes is passionate about accessibility in the arts. It led her to collaborate with a new Bay of Plenty art pat...