Culture 101

Masterchef New Zealand winner 2022, author, and Instagram star Sam Low joins Culture 101 to share his inspirations and cultural favourites. 

Arts news for the week from RNZ's Culture 101.

Raised in the countryside, north of Tamaki Nui-A-Rua and Dannevirke in the lower North Island, Nui Stretch has the distinction of having two parallel careers in wood. One as a luthier, or guitar maker - trained by some of the world’s best - and the other as a carver, now based at Karehana Bay, Porirua near his tūrangawaewae, Hongoeka marae. 

20 years ago, artist Rozana Lee lost her mother, relatives, childhood friends and her family home in Aceh, Indonesia in the Boxing Day Tsunami. More than 200,000 people died in Indonesia, her mother Rosna among those left unaccounted for. Lee’s father Karimun survived.  At the time Rozana Lee was living in Singapore, working as a banker and had just given birth to her first child. The tragedy led...

Tyler Redmond joins Mark Amery on Culture 101 to introduce Blenheim for this week’s Regional Wrap.

A new report highlights a high level of engagement with arts, culture and recreation among 12-year-olds across Aotearoa New Zealand.  Released by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, the data is based on the University of Auckland’s Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal research study. 

Jimmy D is welcome proof that fashion needn’t be all glitz and glam. It can relate as much to a grungier street reality as the cocktail party or old school business attire. Further it can at last be androgynous. Jimmy D has playfully extended everything from the hoodie and mesh shirt as clothes worn regardless of gender.

At first glance it may seem like an unlikely combination - Korean pop music and Pasifika youth - but as a new documentary on The Spinoff demonstrates, there’s a synergy and understanding.  K-pop is a distinctive form of contemporary  popular music originating in South Korea, that has gone global in appeal. The first recorded use of the term was in 1999. 

West End and Broadway wasn’t the dream when UK theatremaker Nancy Zamit co-founded Mischief Theatre in 2008, but the idea of being paid to do improv was. For this group of drama school students and friends, that would have been enough. But 16 years later, 2024 is perhaps the first time Zamit feels she can take a step back and have a breather.

Port Chalmers in Ōtepoti Dunedin has long been a haven for artists as well as seafarers. It’s an active commercial port and these days the locals also welcome flocks of cruise ship visitors. While that provides its opportunities for the arts, artists are here as much to create as present, relishing the community and beauty of the surrounding environment to develop their work.

For North Yorkshire’s Alexander Wright theatre making is a way of bringing together the very local with the much larger universe he believes we need to feel connected to.  In his latest touring show, with longtime collaborator musician Phil Grainger, Helios, the immensity of the sun is brought down to earth with the use by Wright as sole performer of little more than Grainger’s soundscape and a ra...

Weekly arts and culture news from Aotearoa New Zealand with Perlina Lau and Mark Amery

The Māoriland Film Festival is being held in Ōtaki on the Kapiti Coast this week 20-24 March.  It's Aotearoa's annual International Indigenous film festival in a town where Māori culture thrives.

Still Lives - Auckland is a live performance artwork combining what are sometimes considered opposite ends of the spectrum; rugby and art.  Following two weeks of rehearsal, the artwork will be at the Concert Chamber at the Auckland Town Hall on Saturday 30th March. 

Culture 101’s Mark Amery invited award-winning author of fiction, poetry and essays, the Kirikiriroa Hamilton based Tracey Slaughter, to play Fast Favourites. Tracey picks out some favourite poems, cultural initiatives and music.  

It may be the fifth and final episode of Best of the Fest but festivals across Aotearoa have not been slowing down.  Culture 101’s Perlina Lau in Tāmaki Makaurau is joined by playwright and dramaturg, Nathan Joe, actor, voice artist and intimacy coordinator, Romy Hooper and comedian, writer, actor, producer and director, Tom Sainsbury.  Mark Amery is joined by critic Hannah Molloy in Ōtepoti Duned...

News for the week with Culture 101.

A new report commissioned by Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono has found an increased interest and desire for Asian arts and cultural experiences in Aotearoa. 

For a band from Taranaki, making the WOMAD lineup is a dream come true. For Ngāmotu New Plymouth indie group, Fin Rah Zel, this weekend is it.  Known for its outlier music and visual art scene, the band joins Mark Amery at WOMAD to talk about Ngāmotu for this week’s Regional Wrap.  

Taiwan’s first professional percussion ensemble, Ju Percussion Group, was founded in 1986 by Tzong-Ching Ju who still leads the group today.

In Samoan, aiga means family. Not just your immediate family but your wider circle. It could be through blood, marriage or even an adopted connection.  It’s also the name and central theme of Lusi Faiva’s new disability and Pasifika-led show with Touch Compass, premiering at the 2024 Auckland Arts Festival.

There are four shining stars on screen in the new joyous and heartfelt Aotearoa New Zealand film The Mountain - the directorial debut of acclaimed actor Rachel House.  The first is the majestic mountain itself, Taranaki Maunga, in all its moods. The other three are Aotearoa’s latest movie stars - and they’re only 12 years old.  The Mountain is about three tamariki’s mission to find healing with th...

Dance company Black Grace has just returned from a US tour where thousands of people watched their latest work, Paradise Rumour. The company performed in Portland, Laguna Beach and Chicago.  Black Grace has become one of Aotearoa’s most internationally successful performance groups. The company have been touring in the US regularly since a sold-out season at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2004,...

The arts and culture news on Culture 101 

In 2018, Sandro Kopp was tasked by film director Wes Anderson with creating ten monumental paintings for the film The French Dispatch in less than three months.  Kopp’s works needed to look like the work of a singular genius (the fictional “criminally insane” artist Moses Rosenthaler, played by Benicio Del Toro) who had created the work while imprisoned over three years.  No pressure then! The Ros...