Arts Voice Christchurch

Kia ora all,

The next Arts Voice forum is coming up just before ANZAC day. We’re partnering with SCAPE on a panel discussion:

“The River of Arts: creating new ways for The Arts to work in Christchurch’s public spaces.”

Date: Tuesday 24 April

Time: 5.30pm – 7pm

Venue: Te Puna Wanaka, CPIT (Coventry Street)

We’re going to be engaging around the role of the Arts in creating a culturally diverse, economically sustainable and vibrant city. Panelists include Dr Blair French, 7th SCAPE Curator, Coralie Winn of Gapfiller, sculptor Neil Dawson, SCAPE Director Deborah McCormick, Anthony Leighs of Leighs Construction and Tim Church, Urban Designer at Boffa Miskell and member of the Urban Design Panel with the Christchurch City Council.

For more information, go to http://www.scapebiennial.org.nz/public-art-development-christchurch or check out this poster. Pop it in your diaries and we’ll see you there!

Arts Circus update
Support is growing for the Arts Circus initiative, a temporary area in central Christchurch that is dedicated to the arts and entertainment, and uses differently scaled marquees and transformable structures.

The Christchurch City Council has now named Arts Circus as one of its top ten transitional initiatives within its City Plan. The Council has set up its own working party to progress its support of Arts Circus and gather information for its business planning and cost allocation.

Check out a discussion about the Arts Circus on Arts On Sunday: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/artsonsunday/20111030 and a story in the Press: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/5804254/Debate-to-turn-dreams-into-reality.

City Plan update
Building on our submission to Council, Arts Voice is working on a strategy for how the arts can make a major contribution to the pivotal Transitional City chapter of the City Plan. This includes a strategy to align key projects and initiatives such as Art Box, Arts Circus, Life in Vacant Spaces and the Public Arts Network, and making the River of Arts a reality.

Congratulations to Justin Paton and Steph Walker
Congratulations to Justin Paton, Christchurch Art Gallery senior curator, who has been awarded the 2012 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. Justin intends to write a book inspired by the Canterbury earthquakes that will explore the concept of “home”. Brilliant! http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/6066139/Shaken-home-city-inspires-author.

And congratulations to Arts Voice member Steph Walker (General Manager for the Christchurch Arts Festival) who has been named a 2012 fellow for the International Society for the Performing Arts. Fellowships were awarded to fourteen emerging leaders in the performing arts worldwide. Nice one Steph! http://www.ispa.org/resources/leadershipdevelopment/678-2012-fellowship-recipients.

Funds you can use
We’ve had a great list of funding resources come past our inbox in the past week that we thought many of you would find handy. To view it, just click the following link: Funding Resources for Community Groups (Word, 79KB).

The Court Theatre is reopening
Congratulations to the Court Theatre, who are opening officially on Saturday at their new premises near Lincoln Road. For more information about their post-quake journey, watch this TV One news story: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/court-theatre-prepares-reopen-video-4548205. To find out more about what they’re doing, go to www.courttheatre.org.nz.

New studio spaces at 249 Moorhouse Avenue for Christchurch artists
A new group of 6 artists’ studios and an additional studio/gallery space at 249 Moorhouse Avenue (Limeworks) will be opened in February 2012, to compliment Chambers241, the studios and gallery set up by Warren Feeney and Ronald Mottram, with support from Placemakers Riccarton.  The 6 studios occupy approximately 180 sq. metres, divided into spaces varying from 25sq. metres to 20 sq. metres. They will be available to Christchurch artists at an affordable rental fee. A request for expressions of interest from Christchurch artists (either from individuals or as a group) in the 6 studios and/or gallery will be sent out in the New Year. For further information or questions please contact warrenfeeney@xtra.co.nz.
 
Please feel free to get in touch if you have ideas or issues that you’d like to feed back to us.

New Arts Voice members
We’re stoked to finally bring on board a few new faces to Arts Voice: Warren Feeney, Matt Akehurst and Luke Di Somma. We are sure Warren needs no introduction, he has been a mainstay in the Visual Arts community for some time, and set up Chambers@241 in response to the February Earthquake. Matt is an Art practitioner who graduated from the School of Fine Arts in 2010 and works across a range of mediums in the Contemporary Art scene. Luke is a young Musical Director and Composer, the founder of the Christchurch Pops Choir, conductor of the Christchurch Youth Orchestra and a member of the Christchurch Civic Music Council.
 
These fine gentlemen bring new points of view and energy to the team, we hope you will join us in welcoming them.

AGM early next year
We’ll be holding an AGM in April next year where we’ll revisit the reasons for Arts Voice existing, and elect the members of the group to go in to the next phase of representation. We’ll set a date early in the new year, but we just wanted to give you a heads up that this will be happening.

Art Boxes gaining ground
Part of our submission to the City Master Plan was for Art Boxes [http://artboxnz.weebly.com/index.html] – a temporary solution to the lack of studio and gallery space for arts and crafts in CHCH, as well as a very clever design! Have a look at the website and see what we hope will be springing up in the city before the summer ends.

Craft for Christmas
It is great to see Craft Aotearoa blogging stories about local craft practitioners’ earthquake stories, as well as a handy Christmas craft guide [http://craftaotearoa.blogspot.com/]. We’ll see you at the craft market on the 10^thDecember! 

Emergency funds are still available
Did you know that Creative NZ is still offering the Earthquake Emergency Assistance grant? If you, or anyone you know is still struggling, it is worth a look at their website to see if you would qualify for this (the application process is really easy too, FYI) [http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/en/about-creative-nz/christchurch-earthquake-regular-updates-and-impacts-on-the-arts-151502231124172/earthquake-emergency-assistance-grant].

Christchurch Earthquake Mayoral Relief fund
You can also apply for the Christchurch Earthquake Mayoral Relief fund, which gives funding to projects that contribute to the rebuilding of the social and physical infrastructure of Christchurch after the earthquakes. It can also be used for getting specialist advice on the repair or rebuilding an earthquake-damaged community building or structure.
 
To find out more about this fund, or to see if you qualify, go to their website: [http://www.ccc.govt.nz/homeliving/civildefence/chchearthquake/MayoralReliefFund.aspx]
 
That is it from us for now, please feel free to get in touch if you have ideas or issues that you’d like to feed back to us.

Austen Deans was a great Cantabrian artist. An intimate connection with this region, with the land and its distinctive beauty shines through in his work. It will live on. Farewell Austen.

The passing of Chris Doig is a sad day for Christchurch and New Zealand. Arts Voice wishes to pay tribute to the extraordinary and unique contribution Chris has made to the arts community, particularly in Christchurch. His contribution will live on in Christchurch’s rebuild.

 He will be greatly missed.

We’ve been working flat out on the submission for the Central City Plan, and sent it to the Council on Friday. We’ve put the submission here, including the final map for the River of Arts (page 10). To view the submission and appendices, click on the links below.

• Arts Voice Central City Plan Submission (PDF, 7893KB)
• Arts Voice Central City Plan Submission Appendices (PDF, 16233KB)

Note: These files are large and may take a while to load.

Thanks for all your feedback, ideas, help and support along the way.

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Council and Arts Voice meetings this week, we appreciate you coming along. We explained about the submission we’re putting together for the Central City Plan, and got your feedback and input.

For those of you who couldn’t make it, or wanted a second look at our presentation and the current map of the River of Arts, we’ve added them both here. To view them, click on the links below:

• Arts Voice presentation of our submission (PDF, 6527 KB)
• River of Arts map (PDF, 552KB)

The draft Central City Plan is out! To have a look at it and find out how it affects you, go to http://www.centralcityplan.org.nz/.

Along with other sectors, the Plan talks about the arts and arts projects, especially in the City Life chapter. We’re working hard to develop a submission that reflects your ideas and projects, so the arts can be front and centre in our new city.

To find out more, you can go to:

• The City Council briefings about the plan.
• Our meetings after the Council briefings, telling you how we’ll present a submission on your behalf, and getting your feedback.

City Council Arts and Creative Industries briefing

Come along and hear the City Council explain the arts projects proposed in the Draft Central City Plan. This is a unique opportunity for the arts and creative industries to reshape the artistic and cultural life of the central city. The briefings will be held:

When: Monday 5 September and Wednesday 7 September

Time: 3pm – 4.30pm

Where: The Christchurch Art Gallery Philip Carter Family Auditorium

RSVP: To Jenna-Lea Philpott at jenna-lea.philpott@ccc.govt.nz, and please advise which session you will be attending.

This is an open invitation to all members of the arts community. If there’s anyone you know who might like to come to these briefings, feel free to bring them along. For more information, see the invitation (PDF, 134KB).

 Arts Voice meetings

We’re keen to let you know about our submission, and to hear your feedback. To make this easier for you, our meetings will be right after the City Council’s briefings. They’ll be held:

When: Monday 5 September and Wednesday 7 September

Time: 5pm –6pm

Where: The Christchurch Art Gallery Philip Carter Family Auditorium

We’ll be providing wine and cheese, so come along to relax, have a chat, and find out what’s going on. To let us know if you can make it to either meeting, comment on this post or email us at artsvoice@artsvoicechch.com.

Christopher Moore has written articles about the River of Arts, and how the earthquakes have changed the arts in Christchurch. These were in published in the Go section of the Press on July 29 and August 19. To read these articles, click on the links below:

• Art in River City (PDF).
• To the Barricades! (PDF).

Arts Voice members Jane Gregg and George Parker chatted to Lynn Freeman at Radio New Zealand about the River of Arts idea. To listen to the programme or download it, go to http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/artsonsunday/.