Culture 101

You could describe Iwen Yong as an accidental artist. Malaysian-born, he moved to New Zealand with his family at the age of six. First settling in Wellington, they moved to the Hutt Valley where he… Read more Audio

Two bananas duct taped to the wall find themselves unexpectedly in the spotlight. In a clown, fruit mash-up of physical theatre, How To Art is hitting the walls of Basement Theatre in Auckland. Read more Audio

To say the artist duo Kemi Whitwell and Niko Leyden have an obsession with backcountry huts is no overstatement. 

It’s been the focus of their art and design for more than 12 years. The Waikato-based… Read more Video, Audio

For more than two decades, award-winning journalist and presenter, Amanda Gillies has been gracing the screens in the living rooms of Kiwi homes.  Read more Audio

Extraordinary photographs of youth in late 70’s early ‘80s Newcastle in the UK have in recent years started to come fully into the light, thanks to the photographer’s daughter. Work that offers an… Read more Video, Audio

Tucked away in the armpit of Cuba Street is Buttercat Tattoo, a collective of six artists dedicated to elevating each other's work and exploring a broad range of tattoo designs and techniques.

… Read more Audio

This week poet Tusiata Avia once again found herself in the news.  Read more Video, Audio

Young Maori artists are being invited to enter the 2025 Te Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture award. 

Launched in 2020, by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery - Te Pukenga Whakaata, it aims to inspire a new… Read more Audio

The popular Kāpiti Arts Trail is on over the first two weekends of November, boasting over 300 artists opening up their studios and shared spaces, or exhibiting in 13 galleries from Ōtaki to… Read more Audio

From the Cuba Street bucket fountain to the fake lake at Te Papa and the famous 1958 James Turkington mural at the Parnell Baths, artist duo Bena Jackson and Max Fleury have an interest in our… Read more Audio

Anyone who thinks controversy around cycle lanes is anything new, should pick up a copy of Michael Toohey’s just published account of the bicycle’s beginnings in Aotearoa New Zealand, The Cycling… Read more Audio

Matthew Sunderland is an Aotearoa New Zealand screen actor whose characters often turn up unexpectedly, in unexpected places. Ever since playing gunman David Gray - the man who killed 13 residents in… Read more Audio