Photo: Nic Wood

I get around 60 emails a day. The vast majority are variations of the same story – an artist has made a thing. It’s great that artists make things, that is after all what makes them artists. But it's not news in itself – our articles are looking for wider patterns, or things that buck them, structural or policy issues, particular angles or timely opinions. We almost never do reviews because we could hardly scrape the surface, and who is to say that one show out of 100 deserves a review and the others don’t? Not me – even though I do think reviews are important, and even though I am on the lookout for an interesting and perhaps more equitable way we could try to do them.

Meanwhile, the emails pile in. People want people to know about their show. People want people to see their exhibition. People need to sell their records and books. People want some sort of evidence that their hard work eventuated into something, and that it mattered. These are all valid things to want. I read the announcements and try to think about how they might fit into our column pillars, but most of the time, they don’t, at least not without me embarking on a deep dive (if only I had all the time in the world). Still, The Big Idea is here to serve and support artists and the sector, and there’s a place for promotion beyond our event listings in that. 

Historically, there was a column called Advice to my 22-year-old self, where artists would write a short advice column to their younger selves and mention and link the project they wanted to plug in the introductory bio. Before I arrived, Sam, Sandy and Kate had gone a little cold on it. The main reason, I think, is because 22-year-olds are so bloody young. We’re way beyond that, and most of our readers are too. In our version of The Big Idea, we’re clear that it's not a site aimed at young grads, though they are welcome. It's a site for working professionals. The team had been thinking about a different way to hand the microphone keyboard over to artists so they could share some yarns, spread some wisdom, and promote themselves. Sam likes to call a spade a spade, and so Shameless Plug was born. We put together a series of questions – silly, serious, enlightening, unsavoury, and even a little bit cheesy. The following week I sent them out to two theatre-makers, with the option that they could reply in writing or I could call them and then transcribe the conversation. I wasn’t sure how it would go – would our questions surface interesting answers? Would people want to divulge their inspirations and guilty pleasures? Would all the answers be boring?

As the Shameless Plugs have come back into my inbox, my worries have been dispelled (as worries often are). Artists have been disarmingly open in their answers – sharing things from the deepest corners of their childhoods or careers. And as I should have known, they’re poetic and funny and wise. I tend to give them the lightest of polishes, write a quick introduction, pick out a title, lay them out with cute pics, and up they go. People have enjoyed hearing directly from artists, and the artists have enjoyed having the platform – one emailed me to say he’d spent much of the day staring at his piece, chuffed that it existed and was out for the world to read. Of course, I can’t publish 60 Shameless Plugs a day – we thought we should probably cap it at one a week, though I’ve been naughty and done two. Being an editor does involve lots of saying no, but now I have one more way of saying yes.

Here are a few of my favourite parts from the Shameless Plugs we’ve published so far.

“If I’m tired, it means I’m working on something that matters. It means I’m choosing direction over drifting. Boredom, for me, is dangerous. When I’m bored, I get complacent, silent, and passive – and boredom, complacency, silence and passiveness are all luxuries many communities don’t have.” 
– Lila Crichton

“I was a painfully shy five-year-old. Sister Pauline, my St Patrick’s Primary school teacher, selected me to ‘play’ the Bishop in our kindergarten Debut... As the Debut started, little Timmy sauntered down the aisle of the town hall, blessing the crowd, waving, and I loved every minute. Hiding behind a Bishop’s outfit and skullcap, such a grand character and costume, and well… that was it! My great escape!”  
– Tim McGarry

“My hottest career hack is setting personal goals for each show... Setting my own artistic goals gives me something to come back to on every project. Regardless of external forms of success or failure, did I achieve what I wanted to achieve? 
– Sam Strong

“The arts as a whole revolves around us understanding and unraveling what it means to be human, and that exercise and practice we all undertake makes for some really amazing human beings – artists – that make the gruelling journey so worthwhile” 
– Alyssa Medel

“I have always loved theatre the most of all and think that will be so until I take my last breath, with luck, sitting in an audience or saying the right line” 
– Ellie Smith

“I am lucky to say that motherhood has not been a barrier to my creativity; if anything, my children constantly inspire me to stay curious and to create with that same instinctive and intrinsic wonder” 
– Virginia Frankovich

You might notice that many of these are from the performing arts world – this is something I’m looking to remedy, so if you’re an artist of another discipline with something to plug, please get in touch!

💥News on the wire

New Zealand International Convention Centre to be a venue for live music

NZICC, the new convention centre in Auckland opening February 2026 (delayed due to a fire in 2019), has announced its first gig – The Pogues who will be in NEw Zealand for the first time since 1990. Should be interesting to have another large venue in town.

City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi opens major outdoor sculpture opportunity

The gallery is returning to its heritage home in Te Ngākau Civic Square and as part of the homecoming celebrations a new opportunity for a New Zealand-born or based artist has been created. The site for the public sculpture is “unusual” and not the roof where Quasi was for so many years, says project manager and curator of special projects Megan Dunn. See image on the right.

Sam Neill the 2025 Screen Legend 

On Friday The New Zealand Screen Awards committee announced Sir Sam Neill KNZM OBE as the recipient of the 2025 Screen Legend Award. “I am very pleased and proud to be accepting this award amongst my friends and peers. I just worked it out that it’s been 53 years in film – that does indeed sound like a lifetime! Thanks to all concerned. Very honoured,” commented Neill. He had his breakthrough with Sleeping Dogs in 1977.

Performing Arts & Young People Aotearoa Awards winners announced

The PAYPA awards began in 2022 to celebrate excellence in an often overlooked sector. This year's winners were announced at the biannual PAYPA Hui on Saturday. Harmony Hogarth, winner of the Emerging Artists Award says, "It’s such a huge honour and super encouraging to be recognised in this way. I do theatre for and with young people because it has changed and enriched my life in so many ways and if theatre was only for old people eventually it would die out." The award is shared with Seiyan Thompson-Tonga. The Production of the Year was taken out by Taki Rua Productions for Rere Atu Taku Poi, and The Peter Wilson Supreme Award for Significant Contribution to Performing Arts and Young People (the biggie) went to New Zealand children's theatre legend Tim Bray, who passed away earlier this year.
 

Public sculpture stolen, and found, in Christchurch

Less than 24 hours after it was installed last Thursday, a sculpture by George Watson and commissioned by SCAPE Public Art was stolen. Doctrines is a large cast iron cross patterned with traditional Māori patterns, weighing about 100 kg, and resembling agricultural branding irons. This is the first time in SCAPE’s 27 year history that an artwork has been stolen.

On Friday afternoon police said Doctrines “was located a short distance away in some bush, and has now been returned to council staff”. Now SCAPE has taken the piece to the fabricator to repair damage and to assess how to ensure it cannot be taken again.

Full programme for 2026 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts announced

The festival, turning 40 next year, has unveiled a large and varied programme for February and March next year in Wellington (worth travelling for). Drag, theatre, music, visual arts, literature, and more from here and abroad. I’d personally like to go to Red Phone, Dark Academics with Elizabeth Knox and Lili Wilkinson, MĀ, Tipurepure Au Va’ine, Big Flowers for a Wild City, and Gloria. 

Aotearoa's only dedicated studio ceramics museum closed

The Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics in Whanganui has closed after a decade. It was founded by Rick Rudd in 2015 when he used proceeds from selling his house to buy a building on Bates Street, and its continued to be funded by sales of his work, donations, his pension and volunteer help. Rudd told The Herald that Whanganui District Council’s decision earlier this year not to provide funding had been “a kick in the teeth”. In May he asked for $60,000 annually to employ two part-time staff but it was voted down by elected members. After that Rudd tried a fundraiser, applied to Lotteries and Creative NZ but was turned down. “I’m 76 and I’m getting towards the end of what I’ve got. You have to accept that,” he said.

Pip Hartley, tā moko artist, releases line with The Warehouse

Drawing on motifs such as Mangōpare (hammerhead shark), Niho Taniwha (teeth of the taniwha) and Purapura Whetū (star seed), the collection splashes Pip Hartley’s art on just about everything and everything – clothes, beach chairs, cooler bags and a wall decoration. Capitalism at its finest?

Poetry anthology all about food launched

In another piece of evidence to support my theory that foodie-ism is spreading, Landing Press’s latest anthology, Potluck, contains 93 poems and they’re all about food. “Food is essential for life, but it’s much more than that,” says Adrienne Jansen, co-founder and lead publisher of the press. “It’s a powerful thread that connects culture, memory, and identity. It marks our rituals, shapes our histories, and carries the knowledge of those who grow, prepare, and share it.”

Industry bodies welcome government updates to International Screen Production Rebate

Both the New Zealand Film Commission and Screen NZ International are welcoming changes announced by finance minister Nicola Willis on Friday 7 November. In short, the changes will boost subsidies primarily by lowering the qualifying threshold from $15 million to $4 million. “These changes ensure New Zealand remains a serious contender in an increasingly competitive global screen industry,” said Willis. The rebates are to be funded through an additional $577 million provided to the scheme in Budget 2025, bringing its total funding to $1.09b.

New sculpture award recognises work that amplifies the values of safe homes, strong communities, and collective healing

Taranaki artist Daniel McKerrow, recognised for his breathtaking three-metre-high sculpture Whakaruruhau, depicting a wahine cloaked in flowing copper kākahu, has won the inaugural Women’s Refuge Sculpture of Strength Award. “This installation visually represents the strength we find in unity,” says McKerrow. “As these pillars stand together, we as a community must also stand together to support those in need.” Women’s Refuge NZ CEO Ang Jury says “the SOS Award is a partnership between art and the vision of an Aotearoa free of family violence. By recognising artists who give voice to strength and safety, we’re reminding the people of Aotearoa that creativity can drive change – and that everyone can help protect and empower women and children fleeing violence.”

The award is part of NZ Sculpture OnShore, the biennial exhibition now at Ōperetu Fort Takapuna in Devonport, Auckland. NZ Sculpture OnShore is wholly owned by Friends of Women's Refuges Trust with all proceeds going to Women’s Refuge NZ.

NZ Opera announces next year’s season

The season features major productions: the internationally acclaimed Bluebeard’s Castle, a Wellington season of The Marriage of Figaro, a new staging of The Pearl Fishers, and a return of the celebrated te reo Māori concert Toiere. First though, the season kicks off with two free, family-friendly outdoor concerts in collaboration with Auckland Council’s Music in Parks series, Opera in the Park in January. General Director Brad Cohen, says “we’re committed to widening the reach of our work to engage with more communities, and we’re committed to complementing the classics of the repertoire with innovative programming.” 

👀 Further reading 

Over the weekend, we sent John Armstrong to the PAYPA Hui (ok he was going anyway). He’s reported back with five key takeaways from the event.

If you’ve been wanting more information and guidance around the Arts Organisations and Groups Fund, we’ve asked Claire Murdoch, Senior Manager Arts Development Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, all about it and what needs to be prepared for applications next year.

Respected reviewer and TBI contributor Sam Brooks is starting a fascinating new series where he will interview other New Zealand critics about their process and philosophies. The first of the series drops tomorrow (Friday) but you will have to be a paid subscriber ($8 p/m, $60 p/a) to read it.

We gave interdisciplinary designer Michael McCabe the soapbox for his considerations of how he turned to the past to imagine a future for queer venues in his set design for D.R.A.G (Dressed Resembling a God) at Silo Theatre.

Over on The Post, Sapeer Mayron asked Toi Tauranga Art Gallery director Sonya Korohina about the upcoming reopening (Saturday 15 November) of the gallery.

On Friday we published the first of a new monthly column with graphic design journal The National Grid. Founder Luke Wood traces the publication’s evolution from a historical anomaly – the graphic design department at Ilam late last century.

Over on ARTicle Magazine, dancer, choreographer, and co-founder of the NZ Dance Company Shona McCullagh remembers the first production of Gloria in 1990, which will be restaged for the NZ Festival of the Arts in 2026.

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