The recipients of the 2008 Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Awards are visual artist Shane Cotton, costume designer Ngila Dickson, actor George Henare, writer Lloyd Jones and baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes. Each recipient received a donation of $50,000 and a statuette designed by sculptor Terry Stringer.

The recipients of the 2008 Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Awards are visual artist Shane Cotton, costume designer Ngila Dickson, actor George Henare, writer Lloyd Jones and baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes. Each recipient received a donation of $50,000 and a statuette designed by sculptor Terry Stringer.

The Awards were presented last night (November 3) at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington.Artists, whose careers are in full flight, were honoured in recognition of their artistic achievements and as a challenge for them to continue working at high levels.

SHANE COTTON (Ngati Rangi, Ngati Hine and Te Uri Taniwha), Visual Artist History, politics and art are the subject of Shane Cotton's work; finding his place within the matrix of New Zealand's bicultural identity its genesis. Shane has a Fine Arts Degree from the University of Canterbury and a Diploma in Teaching from the Christchurch College of Education and was a lecturer at Massey University in the Maori Visual Arts Programme until 2005. His early paintings reference landscape, with simple images derived from 19th-century Maori Folk Art. Recently, his interest has been in exploring the effects of spatial relationships in picturing change. Shane has been acknowledged with a major survey of a decade of his work at City Gallery Wellington and Auckland Art Gallery, and in prestigious international exhibitions. He has received many awards and is represented in major collections in New Zealand and Australia.

NGILA DICKSON, Costume Designer Ngila's costume design work includes New Zealand films Ruby and Rata and Heavenly Creature and the television series Xena Warrior Princess and Hercules. She received Best Contribution to Design Award at the New Zealand Television Awards for Xena: Warrior Princess in 1997 and 1998. Ngila dominated the 2004 Oscar costume design category with a double nomination for Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Last Samurai, winning with Richard Taylor for The Lord of the Rings. She also received a Bafta Award and an American costume industry award judged by her peers. The Last Samurai costumes were displayed in New York in the build-up to the 2004 Oscars. Ngila worked off-shore from 2004 on a variety of projects but has now returned to New Zealand to work with director Dean Wright on the biblical epic, Kingdom Come.

GEORGE HENARE (Ngati Porou, Ngati Hine), Actor George Henare became involved in theatre in his late teens, abandoning his teacher training after successfully auditioning with the New Zealand Opera Company where he sang chorus in productions such as Porgy and Bess and Il Trovatore. George has worked with the New Zealand Opera Company, the Maori Theatre Trust, Wellington's Downstage Theatre, Radio Drama and television, until joining Mercury Theatre in Auckland where he has played dozens of roles. He widened into television and film work and has also worked extensively in Australia with Melbourne Theatre Co, Sydney's Ensemble Theatre and Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney. George has received numerous honours including an OBE; a Chapman Tripp Best Actor Award and most recently Te Waka Toi, Te Tohu Toi Ke Award for his outstanding contribution to Maori theatre.

LLOYD JONES, Writer Lloyd Jones is described in The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature as someone who "writes narratives which are challenging, original and in some cases controversial". Selected published works include Biografi, 1993; The Book of Fame, 2000, Deutz Medal for Fiction, Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2001; Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance, 2002; Paint Your Wife, 2004, and Mister Pip, 2006. Lloyd has won numerous awards and fellowships. In 2007 his novel Mister Pip won the Deutz Medal for Fiction, Montana New Zealand Book Awards, Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best Book Award and was recognised internationally when shortlisted in the same year for the Man Booker Prize. Lloyd was recently honoured with a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement.

TEDDY TAHU RHODES, Baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes has established an international career on the opera stage and the concert platform performing regularly with major opera companies and orchestras in the USA, in Europe, and in Australasia. He is noted for several world and Australian premiere performances including his acclaimed portrayal of Joe/Dead Man Walking. Recent and future engagements include Escamillo (Paris, Hamburg, Munich, Metropolitan Opera), Stanley (A Streetcar Named Desire/Vienna/OA), Lescaut (Leipzig/OA), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes/Metropolitan Opera), Billy Budd (Santa Fe/ OA) concerts with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, at Carnegie Hall and in Washington. He is widely recorded on the ABC Classics label and has also recorded for BBC/Sony International. Awards include an ARIA (Best Classical Record for The Voice), two Helpmann Awards, Australian Entertainment MO Award and a Green Room Award. Teddy is currently touring New Zealand centres with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

The Arts Foundation and Laureate Award presenting sponsor Forsyth Barr congratulate the recipients who each receive a donation of $50,000 and a statuette designed by sculptor Terry Stringer. Now into its ninth year, the Arts Foundation has acknowledged forty-four Laureates, with donations totalling $1.87 million. The Awards are funded through income generated by the Arts Foundation $6million Endowment Fund, which is managed by Forsyth Barr. The artists were chosen by a selection panel of distinguished peers and arts experts without their knowing they were under consideration. A career Award, not tagged to any particular project, the recipients do not fill out forms, read fine print or make special applications. The 2008 panel was: Scilla Askew (Director, SOUNZ), Graham Beattie (former publisher), Jenny Harper (Director, Christchurch Art Gallery), Gabrielle Huria (Film Producer), Marilyn Kohlhase (advisor, Pacific arts) and Deirdre Tarrant (dance) ADVERTISEMENT 04/11/08