Colour, movement and potential are all on display at a unique festival celebrating creativity, ideas and innovation at The University of Auckland.  

Colour, movement and potential are all on display at a unique festival celebrating creativity, ideas and innovation at The University of Auckland.  

Taking place over the weekend of November 19–21, AMPED is an end-of-year creative showcase staged by students and staff from the University’s National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries (NICAI), highlighting the creative and performing arts as well as the professional programmes studied at NICAI.

The festival, which is free to the public, caters to a diverse mix of interests and entertainment with fine art exhibitions, sonic art installations and contemporary dance and music performances. These events will sit alongside exhibitions and presentations from some of the leading young minds in the field of architecture, planning and urban design including innovative concepts for Auckland’s waterfront.

Professor Jenny Dixon, Dean of NICAI, says: “AMPED celebrates the talent and accomplishments of the Faculty’s students and staff.”

“Our degrees cover a broad range of disciplines - the common element being the astonishing talent and creativity shown in the work that is produced.  Events like AMPED open our doors to the public and introduce our emerging artists, performers and practitioners to the wider Auckland community.”   

AMPED will also offer an insight into how a multi-disciplinary approach to education works as shown by some other places, a dance work inspired by the architecture of the Business School’s Owen G Glenn Building.   

Associate Professor Ralph Buck, Head of the Dance Studies Programme, says: “Sharing our ideas with others, as we are doing during AMPED, increasingly informs creative practice and contributes to the richness and diversity of our future work. It will be a stimulating  weekend.”

AMPED offers more than a dozen free events and activities for enthusiasts, friends, families, and industry professionals  over the three days.

Highlights include:

Elam Graduate Show: Emerging artists from Elam School of Fine Arts
10am-5pm, 20-21 November

ArchPlan Show 2010: Architecture, Planning and Urban Design
10am-4pm, 20-21 November

Some other places: Contemporary dance performance
5 - 6pm, 19-21 November

Gus Fisher AMPED: Group Architects - Towards a New Zealand Architecture, Simon Esling -  Six Obstructions, Ruth Cleland - Mall
19-21 November

Jazz on the Lawn
2pm, 21 November

See more AMPED event listings on The Big Idea.

For the full AMPED programme see www.amped.auckland.ac.nz

Further information:

The University of Auckland’s National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries comprises the School of Architecture and Planning, Elam School of Fine Arts, the Centre for New Zealand Art Research and Discovery (CNZARD), the School of Music and the Dance Studies Programme.