Culture 101

Creative New Zealand research this year shows artists are still earning considerably less than other wage earners. 

If it wasn’t for disco, Taiaroa Royal might be best known as a farmer. Not one of Aotearoa’s most celebrated dancers and choreographers.

Each week we join a creative correspondent from a different part of Aotearoa New Zealand. This week it’s Judene Edgar from Whakatū aka Nelson. 

BDSM is hitting the stage in Tāmaki Makaurau. No, not that BDSM - the Bomb Defusal School of Manakau of course.

Successful trials in France have shown drawing can improve the well-being and lessen the anxiety of those living with dementia. Now, Massey University will join forces with French institutes to run a trial in Wellington. 

Since he could barely reach the joysticks in his local parlour in Ngongotaha, Lake Rotorua, Preston McNeil (Te Arawa, Tainui) has loved spacies.

Comedian, actor and writer Kura Forrester drops into Culture 101 to talk about what she’s been watching and listening to when she’s not in rehearsal.  

Simon Morris looks at three movies that take certain short cuts to reach their audience.

Can you be a critic in your own backyard? Culture 101 speaks to arts critic and senior lecturer, Erin Harrington, about the latest from the Word festival in Christchurch. 

By the time she was seven, Susan Te Kahurangi King had stopped talking. Yet, today, she is one of Aotearoa’s most globally sought after artists. Paris, New York, Dusseldorf are just some of the locations of solo exhibitions this year. 

Each week we join a creative correspondent from a different part of Aotearoa New Zealand. This week it’s Baz Squire of Whangārei’s Hangar Gallery.

“New Zealand cancels Venice Biennale pavilion, citing inadequate resources” ran the headline on leading international art news site Artnet this month. There were similar from New York’s Artforum International. 

From Brahms to Bridgerton and Baroque to Beyonce; classical music is hitting the streets of the capital in early September as Classical on Cuba returns for a third year.   

TV star Karen O'Leary chats to Culture 101 about what she's seeing, consuming and why despite being all over TV, she doesn't watch much of it. 

The feature film Kainga features Pan-Asian ethnicities including Chinese, Indian, Maori-Chinese, Iranian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian and Tamil Eelam New Zealanders. Culture 101 discusses the importance of Pan-Asian representation on screen.

Is there more to Te Tai Poutini than wild foods, pounamu and driftwood?

The Hollywood writers and actors strikes continue with no end in sight. The ripple effects are being felt in New Zealand and Culture 101 explores what this means for audience viewing. 

The epic and lavish comedy podcast, The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertie's Botanarium, has remained largely unheard of in Aotearoa. Until now. 

Pita Turei is an actor, curator, sculptor, comedian and staunch cultural and Iwi advocate. More than anything, Turei tells Culture 101’s Mark Amery, he’s dedicated to walking with people to reveal the hidden histories of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

Mark Amery and Perlina Lau are joined by composer and actor Bret McKenzie, artist and cultural events organiser extraordinaire Suzanne Tamaki (Maniapoto, Tūhoe, and Te Arawa) and Dr Drama aka theatre critic James Wenley.