Tonight, the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi will reveal the eight artists receiving Laureate Awards this year. A few hundred people are right now slapping on some sparkly eye-shadow, or finding out their fancy blazer doesn’t fit anymore in preparation to eat canapés and find out who is getting a cut of the $400,000 ($50,000 each), funded by arts patrons from across the motu. 

Artists and artists adjacent will be arriving at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau from 6pm, and it’s expected there will be a pink carpet, bubbles on arrival, tears, digs at politicians in attendance, moving performances and speeches that go on a little too long.

Tune in from 6pm-ish for live updates from a barely recognisable TBI team (we scrubbed up).

9:12pm All the laureates stand up!

In a big finale all the laureates everywhere (in the audience) are standing up for a giant applause.

Thank you, dear reader, and I bid you goodnight. There are more canapés to be had, a performance by Black Grace, and a dancefloor with DJs. It is time to put the laptop away!

Bye!

9:08pm Happy birthday Reuben Paterson

It is also Reuben's birthday! I can only assume he is also 25.

9:02pm And the final award goes to… Reuben Paterson

"He's my bro, he's my sister," said Lonnie Hutchinson (2024 Laureate) has presented the Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Arts Award to Reuben Paterson, who I hear has recently been adding pearls to his glittery creations. "He's a lovely human, and we love him immensely".

Paterson (Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi, Scottish) has come from New York (oh lala) to receive this award. 

“How beautifully queer you look from up here,” he said. Glitter has "become a very special material to me.. its viral and it offers us the celebration and the experience of everything we dearly need, which is joy". then the thank yous, "you don't do 25 years of practice without a lot of thank yous".

Paterson’s works fuse a Māori visual language, queer identity, and contemporary culture. The selection panel describes Reuben as an artist who has made “an outstanding contribution and cultural impact, giving voice to queer identity and inspiring visibility here and abroad.”

8:52pm Tenor Pene Pati received the Burr/Tatham Trust Award

Simon O’Neill (2005 Laureate) presented the award, saying, “Pene brings audiences to their feet with his extraordinary voice... such tenderness in the way he sings... and also huge passion”.

"From one proud tenor to another... he mihi nui e hoa," said O’Neill.

Pene Pati (Samoa) has a voice that has taken him to the world’s greatest stages. He grew up in Māngere, graduated from the NZ Opera School and went on to study in Cardiff and San Francisco. He is a founding member of Sol3 Mio, a renowned musical trio, and is on a mission to create a path for more Pacific Islander voices to be heard in Western classical music.

Pene Pati is also an absentee that has sent a family member, this time a cousin, William Pati. "It's funny cause a couple of week ago he texted and said 'is there any way you can be in Auckland to receive this award?... all you have to do it walk on the stage, grab the award, and get off the stage'". A fur baby was included in the thanks.

The selection panel praises him as “an incredible ambassador for Aotearoa, whose triumphs and dedication to community and cultural pride inspire new audiences to discover the power of the human voice.”

8:36pm Kate Newby wins the 2026 Sculpture Award

"A bird shat on a tile in show in Portland and Kate said 'What a success'", said Dr Fiona Pardington (2011 Laureate) who is presenting the award.

Kate Newby is not in the house, but her mum, Margaret Campbell, or "the woman who made Kate possible" has received the award.

"I am so proud of my delightul and incredible daughter," said Campbell.

Kate Newby’s practice is considered quiet yet radical. Her works often ask people to notice what they usually overlook and are made up of many small pieces working together to create something rich, detailed and voluminous. 

The selection panel highlights her “commitment to process, her refusal of spectacle, and her ability to make space for others.” 

8:29pm Shona Rapira-Davies receives the 2025 Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Award

Nigel Borell (needs no introduction really) has presented visual artist Shona Rapira-Davies (Ngāti Wai) with the Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Award, the award set aside for Māori and Pasifika creatives. "The term mana wahine really comes into the fore," he said. "Shona has always cut her own path... Shona continues to create works that are gritty, raw and uncompromising".

Rapira-Davies is a sculptor and painter. A notable work is Nga Morehu (1982–88) – eight  life-sized standing women, three seated kuia and one small child made of terracotta, muka and wood.

Shona is here with her son. "She doesn't like big crowds and she doesn't like public speaking" he said, and so he is here to say thanks for her as she stands by him (crying I think). "I'm doing my best to remember what she told me... I'm extremely prond of you, and I love you lots mum".

The selection panel commends her as “a compelling example for younger artists, and one of the wahine Māori whose determination increased the visibility of Māori art in the 1980s.”

8:24pm Everyone is 25

Ok I did not realise the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi itself is turning 25 as well as the awards! Happy quarter century!

Another fun fact I've just learned: over 130,000 people have supported the foundation (and therefore artists!) in this time.

A birthday in the arts could not come without a plug, and this one was the Supernova campaign – they’re aiming to reach $250,000. There are three days left and about $2,500 to raise.

8:15pm Opera and taonga pūoro combine for rememberance

Simon O’Neill (2005 Laureate, world-renowned opera singer) and Horomona Horo (2024 Laureate, master of taonga pūoro) performed a song on stage in rememberance to laureates who have died,

8:05pm Roseanne Liang receives the 2025 Dame Gaylene Preston Filmmaker Award

This is the fourth award, so we’re halfwayish and running somewhat to schedule.

Presented by Chelsea Winstanley (Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Co-Chair and film producer). 

Roseanne Liang's (Hong Kong Chinese, Han, Dai, Hakka) is a fearless cinematic voice as a director and screenwriter. Her films include Banana in a Nutshell, My Wedding and Other Secrets, Do No Harm and Hollywood action-thriller Shadow in the Cloud. Her series include Creamerie, and Flat3.

The selection panel said that Rosanne has “profoundly enriched the tapestry of Aotearoa’s cinema through bold storytelling and steadfast advocacy for representation.”

7:57pm Musician and writer Bill Direen receives the Waiwetu Trust Award

Bill Direen (Pākehā) is an underground legend in the local music scene in Otago. He is prolific and eclectic, with music that spans rock, punk, folk and spoken word. For nearly five decades he has forged an independent path mixing music, poetry, novels, theatre and collaboration.

Filmmaker Simon Ogston made a documentary, Bill Direen - A Memory of Others, which is free to watch online.

Chris Knox (2009 Laureate) is beaming in, absolutely larger than life on the screen on stage. He is posing with with various of Direen records.

"This is a thanks speech," said Bill. He thanks his parents, teachers, partners, other musicians and collaborators including "poets I've argued with". He is "completely un-used to this situation," he said, mostly used to tiny audiences and shoestring budgets.

The selection panel noted that Bill has “produced a mountain of work in various forms, always accessible despite an unceasing poetic depth.”

7:51pm Ceramicist Cheryl Lucas is the 2025 Female Arts Practitioner Laureate

There aren’t many ceramicists in the Laureates list, but this award is being presented by John Parker, a ceramicist and 2010 Laureate. "One of the great pleasures in life is seeing your friends succeed and triumph," he said.

Cheryl Lucas (Pākehā) works from her studio in Lyttelton making complicated and structural pieces that explore social and environmental issues which reflecting the landscapes of Te Waipounamu.

"I'd like to thank the panllists who fished me up from somewhere and thought I was worthy of this," said Lucas, who is pretty sure she is the first person from Tarras to win an award like this. "It's given me licence to be a whole lot more naughty",

The selection panel says her practice “defies easy categorisation and demonstrates a unique and vital contribution.”

7:35pm Painter Séraphine Pick is the 2025 Visual Arts Laureate

Shane Cotton (2008 Laureate) is presenting the very first award of the evening. "I remembering seeing the work for the first time, it was very different to other students work... bold, colourful and expressive, hints of figures... paintings not concerend with illustion but with a sense of feeling."

"I regard her and an artists' artist," he said.

Séraphine Pick (Pākehā) paints soft, layered, atmospheric paintings that sometimes incorporate figures in dream-like scenes. 

"I met Shane in Ilam in 1985," says Pick. "It is an immaense honor to be recognised.. it means so very much to me." she says it feel like a "giant injection of love and support to go on".

The selection panel says she is “an inspiration for several generations of art students, sustaining a continually renewed artistic practice of remarkable depth.”

7:32pm Jessica Palalagi says hi

Jessica Palalagi, Kaiwhakahaere of the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi, who you might recognise from the sign-off at the bottom of their emails or by her chunky glasses, has welcomed us and said “where there is artistic excellence there is human dignity”.

Elizabeth Knox, a Laureate of the year first round, is here tonight and gets a huge cheer, though perhaps not as lound as the cheer for the prizes going from $30,000 to $50,000 this year.

7:30pm Sam Neill is here (kind of)

ok it was just his voice and he is gone. Bye Sam.

7:26pm The cats have been herded

 After many bing, bing, bings on the loudspeakers, the crowd is, for the most part, seated in the theatre. We each have a goodie bag with a little cardboard lunchbox inside with cheese and crackers. We are behind schedule just a little, but the ceremony is beginning in one minute. It’s not the most beautiful venue… I was at The Civic last night and I’m missing seeing a faux night sky and golden baby elephants.

7:14pm Scene report

It is very busy! Almost everyone looks famliar apart from that it usually turns out they're are a celebrity, like Keisha Castle-Hughes (actually in attendance).

Some stand-out outfits include a yellow dress with a big puff sleeve, a handbag that looks like a clam, a green silk dress with yellow shoes and a necklace that reached the wearers ankles.

Someone suggested a fun game to me... artist or funder?

5:45pm Fashionably on time

The Arts Foundation hopes to have the ceremony part of the evening wrapped up by 9pm, and everyone on their way home by 10.40pm. We’ll see. I have my fancy coat on and am set to arrive by 6:15pm.

There are at least two performances and eight awards to get through, and each award is presented by a person of the winners choosing. The awards fall into categories:

Visual Arts Award
Female Arts Practitioner Award
Waiwetu Trust Award (any discipline)
Dame Gaylene Preston Filmmaker Award
Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Award
Sculpture Award
Burr/Tatham Trust Award (any discipline)
Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Arts Award

So… what’s a Laureate?

These awards recognise established living artists, of any artform, from Aotearoa (they don’t currently have to live here to qualify). The Arts Foundation website says they’re given to “artists whose practise also has an impact on New Zealand”.They’re a recognised accolade and a significant financial boost, which comes with no strings (no outcomes, no reports, no nothing).

You cannot apply for a Laureate. They’re decided by an independent panel of experts – curators, past Laureates, and arts leaders – and arrive as a call out of the blue. 

This year’s panel included: 

Briar Grace-Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wai) screenwriter, director, playwright and 2000 Laureate 
Felicity Milburn, lead curator, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū 
Kim Paton, director, Objectspace 
Nigel Borell (Pirirākau, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Te Whakatōhea) artist, curator and 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Moment in Time He Momo Recipient 
Peter Robinson (Ngāi Tahu) visual artist and 2016 Laureate 
Shayne Carter (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) musician and 2020 Laureate 
Simon O’Neill, Operatic Tenor and 2005 Laureate

137 artists have received Laureate awards over the years, including Phil Dadson, Oscar Kightley, Gaylene Preston, Elizabeth Knox, John Pule, Lisa Reihana, Cliff Curtis, Jermane Clement, Tāme Iti, Lonnie Hutchinson and Alison Wong.

This year the awards are turning the sweet old age of 25, and tickets ($100 a pop) are sold out. The dress code is “Birthday Best” and we are hoping no-one turns up nude.

“The 2025 Laureates embody the innovation, dedication and spirit that define New Zealand’s arts community. Each one of them pushes boundaries, sparks conversation, and deepens our collective understanding of who we are,” says Jessica Palalagi, Kaiwhakahaere of Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi.