Wellington's Heart for the Arts
by Margie T Logarta — Business Traveller Magazine, Asia-Pacific — March 2007
Wellington is a city that celebrates self-expression and diversity, says Margie T Logarta. She examines its tremendous creative vibe.
When Eric Vaughn Holowacz immigrated to Wellington four and a half years ago from the US, little did he expect he would land a post that replicated his previous job managing the arts council of Beaufort County, South Carolina.
Holowacz’s timing was impeccable. New Zealand was basking in the glow of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was shot there in over 150 locations. But more importantly, the Wellington City Council was eager to invest in a new Arts Centre. In July 2005, that dream was realised with a two-building, seven-storey facility – Toi Poneke in Maori – housing offices, studios and rehearsal rooms, all supervised by Holowacz, its arts programmes and services manager.
“It was such an exciting step to be making,” Holowacz said during the launch. The creative nucleus, he added, reflected numerous discussions and exchanges the city council conducted with the arts community to ensure the right pieces were put in place.
Small, isolated and off the well-travelled routes Wellington may be, but it is far from parochial. The juxtaposition between being a capital city –?embassies abound – and a university town (Victoria University) that attracts thousands of overseas students has lent the city an appealing bohemian edginess. “Wellington is very walkable. Everyone knows everyone,” the transplanted Holowacz comments. “It’s easy to get connected to the street life right away.”
To absorb that local colour, one almost always starts in Cuba Street. Named after an early settler ship, the Cuba, this nearly one-kilometre pedestrianised area at the centre of downtown Wellington is home to an eclectic collection of boutiques, restaurants, cafés and bars and art venues. Some homegrown talents, now hitting the national charts, such as Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Phoenix Foundation and The Black Seeds, had their careers jump-started in the neighbourhood. And Wellingtonians, a loyal lot, have snapped up these bands’ CDs as fast as they can produce them, never tiring of listening to their music, which is played faithfully throughout the city wherever people chill out.
But on Cuba Street, expression isn’t restricted to indoors. At any given time, buskers do their thing, and anyone who has something to say or promote can do so, tacking up posters, handing out material or staging some form of expression. All that creative energy culminates in the biennial Cuba Street Carnival (alternating with the New Zealand International Arts Festival), which was held February 23 and 24 and featured 10 music and entertainment platforms, street performers, outdoor film showings, bazaars and the Illuminated Night Parade.
When it comes to formal exhibition venues and content, Wellington is amazingly rich. There is the stunning Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand,tongarewa meaning “repository of treasures”), a national landmark, which attracts large crowds for its innovative displays. The two worlds that make up New Zealand – Maori and pakeha (New Zealanders of Anglo or European extraction) – are portrayed with great sensitivity. One day is simply not enough to absorb this fascinating place. (Two exhibitions not to be missed are the Marae, an actual Maori meeting place reconstructed especially for the museum andGolden Days, a unique junk shop portraying a century of New Zealand history on film.)
City Gallery Wellington, a public facility with five show sections and no permanent display, is another important stop. During our visit in January, Sam Taylor-Wood, the provocative contemporary British artist, was just concluding her three-month stint of a collection of works from the mid-1990s to the present, including David, the Beckham sleeper (a video of him in perfect repose commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery London) and Crying Men, a photographic suite of celebrities – some recognisable, some not – such as Jude Law and Daniel Craig (pre-James Bond) in various stages of emotional vulnerability. At the same time, upcoming Auckland artist Peter Madden put on Escape from Orchid City, highlighting 3D installations made up of cuttings from pages of books, magazines and encyclopedias. Now showing until April is Telecom Prospect 2007: –? New Art New Zealand, a survey of emerging local artists in the past three years.
Galleries-cum-boutiques, the majority of them located in downtown Wellington, abound. Listings can be accessed on www.knowwellington.com/know or through free brochures such as the extremely helpful Arts Map from the i-SITE information centre of Tourism Wellington (corner of Victoria and Wakefield Streets, tel 64 4 802 4860, open on most days from 0830 to 1700 and on holidays from 0930 to 1400). The Art Zone, a listing of New Zealand galleries, costing NZ$5 (US$3.42) is comprehensive.
Visitors on a short leash in Wellington can easily nip into any of the establishments mentioned in the guides; it’s choosing what to bring home that proves to be the dilemma. Tamarillo, owned by the garrulous Tadashi Tamai, displaying a showcase of emerging and veteran talents, fortunately offers packing and shipping worldwide. (My two metal sculptures of a Kiwi bird and her chick were lightweight enough to be handcarried.) At Kura Contemporary Ethnic Art and Ora Design Gallery, neighbours on Allen Street, the focus is on contemporary and traditional Maori art and both are licensed stocklist for Toi Iho, the quality assurance mark for Maori arts and crafts.
Ora, furthermore, has the advantage of being owned by the Hetet family of artists, members of the Te Atiawa tribe. If time permits, it’s well worth allotting a morning to tour the clan’s Maori Treasures complex – a living Maori tribal settlement – in the Lower Hutt area. (Specialist tour operators like Flat Earth New Zealand Experiences, tel 64 4 977 5805, can get you there and back quickly.)
The one-hour drive, along New Zealand’s dramatic coast, proves refreshing to both mind and soul. Points of interest include Peter Jackson’s neat-looking compound in Seatoun (I was told that after his Oscar sweep he displayed the statues in his window sill in an effort to share the glory with his fellow Wellingtonians) and selected open-air areas near forests, provided by the city government for artists to display their latest installations.
A brainchild of master carver Rangi Hetet, his wife, weaver Erenora Puketapu-Hetet, their family and their students, Maori Treasures consists of an information centre, a gallery, several work studios of the Konae Aronui Wanangna Art School, café and shop.
We managed to catch Sonnie Davis, one of the resident carvers, as he was contemplating his next move on a mask destined to hang on a wall overseas. The centre exports numerous artworks to homes of collectors and offices of various New Zealand diplomatic missions. Says Sonnie, who once thought of being a “chippy” (carpenter) or a butcher: “When I’m working, I’m communicating with my ancestors.” Sonnie’s kaiwhakaako (teacher), the school’s founder Rangi Hetet (his wife Erenora has since passed on) continues to conduct classes. Due to his heavy load, Hetet sends his grandchildren to Sonnie for tutoring in the basics of carving.
The Maori Treasures tour is not just a static experience. Visitors (they are called “hosted guests” in this particular village) are invited to try their hand at an activity such as weaving a native basket.
What thrilled me to pieces was the rare chance to don a korowai (cloak) made completely of kiwi feathers, which is meant for special occasions. Some years ago, I saw New Zealand’s famous rare flightless icon in a wildlife reserve in Christchurch but had never gotten this close to it. Its down felt softer than the sheerest silk!
Now that New Zealand has gained new cachet with travellers – thanks to Jackson and his team’s efforts to recreate Tolkien’s Middle Earth and King Kong’s steamy jungle lair (Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones is next, but alas, not The Hobbit), Wellington’s vibrant art scene certainly has the chops to impress them as well.
“Having several art schools in the city ensures there is always steady stream of talent,” says Tracey Monastra, City Gallery’s education and public programmes manager. The Arts Centre’s Eric Holowacz adds: “There is a sense that people can try anything new culturally and the community appreciates this.”
At the annual Fringe Festival, which took place February 9 to March 4, the penchant for challenging artistic boundaries played out in many of the 98 productions mounted. The use of quirky venues such as parking garages and churches was favoured as was a car where two artists performed for an audience of only two (the number of people that could be accommodated at one time) and a guestroom in the Museum Hotel with seating for 20. In September, the Montana World of Wearable Art – a presentation featuring the body as a canvas – has been drawing record crowds since 1997 and will do so again this year.
Says Holowacz: “New Zealand is not a very large country, and many artists are trying to find the right place for themselves, where they can follow their dreams and achieve a level of stability. Through our arts centre, we aim to help new and emerging talents produce and build.”
He says the city council, headed by Mayor Kerry Pendergast, an art aficionado herself, is especially keen to develop arts on the small and medium level, “helping those with not a whole lot of infrastructure”, providing grants of NZ$100,000 (US$68,574) a year to anyone who submits a good idea.
Is there another Peter Jackson out there? As we write this, Tika Waititi (aka Taika Cohen), whose Two Cars, One Night was nominated for the short film category in the 2005 Academy Awards, is currently working on his first feature Eagle vs Shark. Watch this space, folks.