AUT is launching the new Master of Cultural & Creative Practice (MCCP) in 2017. It is a one and a half year (full-time) degree aimed at developing expertise in cultural expression. Mixing live projects with coursework students can tailor their journey, choosing to specialise or further develop existing skills and experience in a diverse array of subjects. This new degree is positioned to address overlaps between the economy, the environment and the community, in which a broad array of creative endeavours including visual arts, design, performing arts, and interactive media sit within the cultural domain, alongside cultural and natural heritage, embodied in the landscape, in sites, museums (real and virtual) and archaeology.

To ensure Mātauranga Māori is embedded within the pedagogy of this programme the designers have worked closely with Te Ara Poutama (Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Development) to shape a degree that reflects and responds to a changing world. The proposed degree draws on local cultural identity as a method of participating, inquiring, and interfacing with a range of cultural-creative practitioners to develop new cultural capital and critically engage with the sector.

The suite of papers combines theory and practice, building on a student's prior experience and learning, opening up creative and critical reflection. Each student will utilise and contribute their particular creative knowledge and skills, braided with their own heritage and cultural understanding, to create a dynamic space in which to learn and undertake a practical research project. The research project is a pivotal part of this degree, where students consolidate and apply their previous learning, and the new knowledge acquired during the 120 points of coursework, toward a specialised practice-based research project. One of the teachers on the programme, Dr Ella Henry, also coordinates the Maori Media major of the Bachelor of Maori development. She says, “This programme is an exciting innovation, focusing on practitioners, their aspirations for culture and creative practice, and the potential for developing new and shared knowledge”. For further information contact Ella Henry, or Programme Developer, Sue Jowsey at AUT, phone (09) 921-9999, or email Ella at ella.henry@aut.ac.nz, or Sue at sue.jowsey@aut.ac.nz.