Arts & Culture
“Arts and culture are the creative things people make and share, like music, paintings, dance, stories, and traditions. They show who we are, where we come from, and what we believe. Arts and culture help us express ourselves and connect with others.”
Twizel photographer Jeff Ng captures Aurora Australis from Lake Ruataniwha
Twizel astrophotography enthusiast Jeff Ng says the region has seen a few auroras lately, after he captured a magnificent view on Saturday night. The Airbnb owner with a passion for photography took the colourful photo at Lake Ruataniwha about 10.30pm. "It wasn't busy," he said. "I was all alone in the dark, pretty much."
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 15.03.2026
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Seals, shipwrecks and a screaming swallower: Underwater Photographer of the Year 2026 – in pictures
The annual competition draws thousands of entries from across the world and brings together images from below the water’s surface that show the diversity and challenges of subaquatic life.
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Source. theguardian.com, 27.02.2026
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Who was Jane Austen’s best heroine? These experts think they know
Seven leading Austen experts have made their case for her ultimate heroine. To mark the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, we’re pitting her much-loved heroines against each other in a battle of wit, charm and sass. Seven leading Austen experts have made their case for her ultimate heroine, but the winner is down to you. Cast your vote in the poll at the end of the article, and let us know the reason for your choice in the comments.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 01.11.2025
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How Jazz singer Gregory Porter discovered his voice
Jazz singer Gregory Porter's honeyed baritone is famous over the world, but it was in church where he first found his voice, he says. Gregory Porters' mother was a Baptist minister in California, and he would sing in church with his siblings, he told RNZ's Saturday Morning. "It is where I found my voice, I think, and discovered the power of music. I never thought that the things that people were clapping about or becoming excited about was just me.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 12.03.2025
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A sculpture made of fire: Murray Fredericks’ best photograph
‘We walked three kilometres into this Australian lake, to where the water was still only a metre deep. Then we set up the gas pipe – and waited until the air was really still’. During my student years I did very traditional black-and-white landscape photography. I spent time in the Himalayas, Patagonia and Tasmania and came back with pictures of grandeur – what is sometimes described as “the sublime”.
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Source. theguardian.com, 12.03.2025
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Sony world photography open award winners – in pictures
Feasting polar bears, flying octopuses and gadgets galore – these stunning images won in their category at this year’s awards.
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Source. theguardian.com, 13.03.2025
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‘Something magical is happening’: sales boom for children’s comics creating young readers of the future
Publishers and analysts say popularity of genres like manga and superhero comics is a gateway into reading. The best route to learning to love words in print could well be pictures. This, at least, is the hope of the publishing industry this spring, as it welcomes news that sales of children’s comics and graphic novels have reached an all-time peak of almost £20m in Britain.
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Source. theguardian.com, 09.03.2025
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Slice of Ramadan at Māngere Refugee Centre: A kitchen that's operating 20 hours a day
Chef Chris Waghorn is up at 2am at Auckland's Māngere Refugee Centre, and he'll likely still be in the kitchen for another 12 hours or so every day during March. About 200 refugees could be going through the centre at any one time - and Waghorn estimates more than half of them could be fasting for the Islamic month of Ramadan.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 09.03.2025
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Ockham New Zealand Book Awards finalists revealed
Four award-winning authors are in the running for New Zealand's biggest fiction prize. This year's finalists for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards include former winners Laurence Fearnley, Kirsty Gunn and Damien Wilkins, alongside Commonwealth Writer's Prize winner Tina Makereti. The four authors are competing for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, worth $65,000.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 05.03.2025
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Which album will win this year’s Taite Music Prize?
Spooky psych-rock, Māori funk and luxurious country music are among the genres competing for Aotearoa's top independent music prize. Independent Music NZ (IMNZ) had a record-breaking 80 submissions from which to choose 10 finalists for the 2025 Taite Music Prize, named in honour of the iconic Kiwi broadcaster Dylan Taite. The award, which includes a $12,500 cash prize, will be presented on 15 April at Auckland's Q Theatre.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 03.03.2025
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‘I aspire to be like water’: the exquisite buildings of Liu Jiakun, winner of architecture’s top prize
He turns steelworks into parks and makes ‘rebirth bricks’ from earthquake rubble. As the novelist, meditator and ‘accidental architect’ wins the Pritzker prize, we look at the masterful temples, caves and public spaces of this one-man antidote to Chinese bombast.
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Source. theguardian.com, 04.03.2025
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The Ugandan arts centre bringing harmony to Africa’s biggest refugee camp
The Bidi Bidi performing arts venue offers more than 250,000 refugees the chance to sing, play, dance – and dream of a peaceful future. The sound of a flute floats towards five young men in the 1,000-seat Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre theatre in Uganda – the country that hosts the highest number of refugees in Africa. The music carries past them to the shrubs that surround the circular majestic building and the neighbours going about their lives.
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Source. theguardian.com, 19.02.2025
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Anxiety can be debilitating, but controlling it starts with a simple step, Martha Beck says
Gun violence, the climate crisis, political division and brain-hijacking technology make today's society a breeding ground for anxiety. Disrupting the cycle of constant worry requires big shifts in how we relate to the world, argued Martha Beck. Searching for ways to curb her own off-the-charts anxiety led the sociologist and best-selling author to discover that curiosity and creativity could act as antidotes.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 16.02.2025
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The New Zealand apartment design about to guide Australian housing
One feature of Space Craft Architect's award-winning apartment design is "grumpy spaces." The mid-rise apartment complex design from the New Zealand firm won a recent competition in Australia. It will go into a pattern collection of housing plans with the hopes of ending a chronic housing shortage with beautiful but functional designs.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 16.02.2025
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Māori artist Reuben Paterson's glittering New York life
Celebrated Māori artist Reuben Paterson says he has no regrets on making the move to New York a couple of years ago. Paterson works predominantly with glitter and has a huge glitter studio at his Bushwick workshop in Brooklyn. Maggie Tweedie went to his studio in New York and interviewed him there recently. Bushwick is a famous enclave for artists and creators, Paterson said.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 03.02.2025
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Ockham New Zealand Book Awards announces top titles for 2025
The longlist for the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards has been released with 43 titles making the cut. The awards showcase the best of the country's literary talent - covering poetry, fiction, general non-fiction and illustrated non-fiction. Judges whittled 175 entries down to 43.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 30.01.2025
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Sol3 Mio's Pene Pati makes his New York Metropolitan Opera debut
Tenor Pene Pati, from beloved New Zealand trio Sol3 Mio, has just achieved one of the biggest milestones in the opera world. This month, he made his debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera playing the lead role of the lecherous Duke in Verdi's libretto Rigoletto. Pati says it was such a far-fetched dream to be able to debut at what he calls the "Olympics" of opera singing.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 23.01.2025
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Wētā FX scores two nominations at BAFTAs
Wellington's Wētā FX has scored two nominations at the British Film Academy Awards (BAFTAs) for their work on Better Man and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Robbie Williams' biopic Better Man, directed by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman), depicts the British pop star as a CGI chimpanzee. Wētā FX's Luke Millar, David Clayton, and Keith Herft received a nod in the Best Special Visual Effects category for bringing to life actor Jonno Davies'
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 16.01.2025
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Vivienne Westwood exhibition opens in Wellington, on first stop of global tour
An exhibition showcasing Vivienne Westwood fashion and jewellery opens on Friday at Te Papa in Wellington. The exhibition is designed and curated by the house of Vivienne Westwood and produced by Nomad Exhibitions. More than 550 pieces of jewellery and 15 complete ensembles are on display from the British designer, who was one of the pioneers of punk fashion.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 17.01.2025
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Mataora Journey: How a tāne Māori embraced his sacred calling
"I immediately lifted my shoulders and held myself up. I am a better person for having it." It took 59 years for Rob Tai (Whakatōhea, Te Whānau a Apanui) to unveil his mataora, but he wouldn't have it any other way. From a young age, Tai felt an unexplainable pull toward receiving his moko kanohi, something he held as a sacred calling. "I don't know why I wanted it, but it seemed 'right'," he said.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 15.01.2025
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Music sounds better with you? How your listening habits affect your love life
Psychologists say that singing, dancing and song preferences play a key role in the viability of romantic relationships. “What’s the one thing your readers should do to help them use music to find and catch the partner of their dreams?” asks Patrick Savage, a senior research fellow in psychology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. “Go to karaoke and sing a duet. Go and sing A Whole New World with Brad Kane and Lea Salonga.
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Source. theguardian.com, 12.01.2025
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My 90,000 shots of the sun: Andrew McCarthy’s best photograph
‘I took all the images with a precisely tuned telescope then joined them up. Use the wrong type of telescope and you’ll blind yourself and burn your house down’. Ibought a telescope on a whim in 2017, thinking back fondly to when my dad used to show me Jupiter and Saturn through his. I thought: “Why not revisit some of those memories, now that I can afford to spend a few hundred bucks on essentially a toy?”
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Source. theguardian.com, 08.01.2025
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Three hundred leaders gather - plan pan-Māori assembly to challenge government
Around three hundred Māori leaders are meeting today at Omāhu near Hastings to discuss a proposal which could include the creation of a new pan-Māori assembly. The assembly would promote a collective response to government challenges from Māori. The hui dubbed the Wānanga-ā-Motu follows on from a series of hui that began in January of last year with the call by the late Kiingi Tuheitia for Māori to unite.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 10.01.2025
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'Reclaiming a Birthright': Misconceptions about Moko
Tā moko, the sacred art of Māori tattooing, carries the mana of generations. As told by the many who wear moko, these taonga are far more than skin deep - they are a physical manifestation of identity, whakapapa, and belonging. But over the years, colonial influences and misconceptions have clouded the understanding of moko, leading to hesitations among those seeking to reclaim their taonga.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 10.01.2025
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From Igbo to Angika: how to save the world’s 3,000 endangered languages
With half of all languages predicted to die out in decades, activists are turning to online tools to preserve them. Every year, the world loses some of its 7,000 languages. Parents stop speaking them to their children, words are forgotten and communities lose the ability to read their own scripts. The rate of loss is quickening, from one every three months a decade ago to one every 40 days in 2019 – meaning nine languages die a year.
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Source. theguardian.com, 07.01.2025
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Dog x-rays, art history and a ‘never say never’ attitude: the surprising toolbox of professional conservators
Restoration demands a marriage of scientific and technical expertise with knowledge of art and incredible patience. When Cecilia Giménez noticed a flaking and faded painting on the wall of her local church in 2012, her decision to pick up a paintbrush would result in one of the world’s most infamous cases of art restoration.
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Source. theguardian.com, 07.01.2025
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Northern Lights Photographer of the Year – 2024
The Northern Lights Photographer of the Year collection from Capture the Atlas features the most extraordinary aurora photos captured over the 12 months. This year, as we reach the solar maximum of this solar cycle, the northern and southern lights have been more active than ever, illuminating skies in unexpected places where they’ve rarely – if ever – been photographed.
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Source. theguardian.com, 31.12.2024
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RNZ podcasts to revisit over the summer break
The summer holidays are here - which means you may have some spare time up your sleeve. How about spending that time catching up on RNZ's newest podcasts? Here are 10 of the best - in no particular order - from 2024 to enjoy.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 02.01.2025
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Painstaking work to conserve Ireland’s oldest paper documents begins
Delicate 650-year-old pages to be preserved are some of the island’s most important historical texts. Work has begun to conserve and digitise one of the oldest paper documents still in existence on the island of Ireland. The ecclesiastical register, which dates back to the medieval period, is about 650 years old. It belonged to the former archbishop of Armagh Milo Sweteman.
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Source. theguardian.com, 26.12.2024
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Pedal to the metal for Dunedin electrician
Mastodon, Slayer and Whitechapel are not among the usual clientele for the average New Zealand tradie. A Dunedin sparkie who supplies equipment to some of the biggest names in the metal scene. According to Tony Pepers, "you're either a really good engineer or a really good musician, not both". While running a custom music pedal manufacturing business for over a decade had pushed him to improve his guitar playing.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 27.12.2024
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Ten of the best RNZ celebrity interviews of 2024
From the worlds of comedy, literature and television, RNZ welcomed guests from across the artistic spectrum this year. Here are 10 of the best. Celebrities from a host of different walks of life talked to RNZ in 2024, with many touching on struggles fought, finding their strength, and mental well-being prioritised.
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 26.12.2024
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Florian Habicht's first book explores the joy of singing in the shower
With his "life hack" of singing his heart out in a private karaoke room for a couple of hours now off the table, the filmmaker got back into his teenage habit of singing in the shower. "I started exploring it deeper and realised why water is such an amazing, magical thing."
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Source. rnz.co.nz, 23.12.2024
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Art: Laura Cumming’s 10 best shows of 2024
Black art moved centre stage, sculpture couldn’t keep still, Francis Alÿs captured the power of child’s play – but the year belonged to Van Gogh.
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Source. theguardian.com, 22.12.2024
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