Wellington Arts Centre - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Wellington Arts Centre (61-69 Abel Smith Street, Te Aro

Te Aro

Te Aro is an inner-city suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, 1 km from the centre. It comprises the southern part of the central business district including the majority of the city's entertainment district and covers the mostly flat area of city between The Terrace and Cambridge Terrace at the base...

, Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

), is the New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

capital's primary creative production facility and support complex. It was established between 2003-2005, and was formally opened by Mayor Kerry Prendergast

Kerry Prendergast

Kerry Leigh Prendergast, CNZM was the 33rd Mayor of Wellington . She was the second woman to serve as Mayor of Wellington, succeeding Mark Blumsky.-Before politics:...

in July 2005. For twelve years previous, the city's arts centre had been based at the much smaller Oriental Bay

Oriental Bay

Oriental Bay is a suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Located close to the CBD on Wellington Harbour, it has the closest beach to the centre of the city and is thus a popular spot both for living and for visiting....

Rotunda. The new complex, spread across two buildings and seven floors, has a focus on active creative production in all disciplines, and on the further advancement of cultural identity in New Zealand. It is located in the bustling and dynamic Upper Cuba Street

Cuba Street, Wellington

Cuba Street is one of the most prominent streets in Wellington, New Zealand.-Location and origin:Named after an early settler ship to New Zealand, the Cuba, it is to the south of the CBD, but still in the inner city. Cuba Street was once the route of the Wellington trams...

neighbourhood of Wellington.

The arts centre houses a combination of 29 artist studios, rehearsal spaces, music rooms, and administrative offices. It is home to over a dozen producers, festivals, or arts organisations, including Taki Rua Theatre, Cuba Street Carnival

Cuba Street Carnival

The Cuba Street Carnival is a major street parade and creative celebration in Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand.Founded by Chris Morley-Hall in 1998, the festival involves hundreds of artists, performers, and a weekend audience of over 125,000...

, Fringe Festival NZ, Dance Aotearoa NZ, Sticky Pictures, and Arts Access Aotearoa. Other cultural concerns based at the facility include Wellington Photographic Society, Acoustic Routes, Empress Stiltdance, Shakespeare Globe Centre NZ, and Storytellers Cafe. There are nearly 40 visual artists working from the two floors of studio space, and the ground floor contains workshop space and a gallery which presents 15-20 exhibitions each year.

The Wellington Arts Centre supports emerging and early-career artists and new projects, serves advanced creative people and established organisations, and offers community arts opportunities for the general public. There is a small staff based at the facility, including the city's Arts Programmes & Services Manager, Eric Vaughn Holowacz. The team has helped engineer new initiatives and creative projects such as Drive by Art

Drive by Art

Drive by Art is an on-going community public art project in the city of Wellington, New Zealand. Begun in 2003 by the City Council, in close partnership with local companies Flagmakers and Resene Paints, it has commissioned over 200 original art street banners which have been installed over the...

, Opening Notes, the Artsplash Festival

Artsplash Festival

Wellington's annual Artsplash Festival is New Zealand's largest student arts festival, and comprises over 100 primary and intermediate schools from the lower North Island and over 18,000 students and audience members. Venues are the Michael Fowler Centre, Capital E, and the Opera House...

, and Wellington's Public Art

Public art

The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...

Programme. Holowacz and staff also advise on project and audience development, collaborations and partnerships, resources and technical matters, and marketing. The Wellington Arts Centre reception desk is staffed Monday through Saturday, but the facility is in use around the clock.

In July 2006, after its first successful year of operation, the Wellington Arts Center was re-named Toi Pöneke, the Māori phrase for 'Art of Wellington'. As a living facility dedciated to new art ideas and cultural production, Toi Pöneke - Wellington Arts Centre is regularly used by over 100 artists, musicians, theatre people, instructors, and producers each day. In a very short time, the centre has become the primary creative facility in the New Zealand capital.

External links

External links: New Zealand Organizations based at Wellington Arts Centre

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