# New Zealand Festival of the Arts

Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts is a multi-arts biennial festival based in Wellington New Zealand that started in 1986. Previous names are the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, New Zealand International Arts Festival, New Zealand Arts Festival and New Zealand Festival of the Arts. The festival is produced every two years and runs across three weeks in venues in Wellington City and outreach programmes in the region. The festival features both international and national acts from performing arts and music with a literary programme also.

## History

The festival started in 1986 in Wellington as the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. The festival was modelled on the Adelaide Festival in Australia. Amongst the people creating this first festival were arts patrons headed by former Prime Minister Jack Marshall. The Wellington City Council and mayor Ian Lawrence supported the festival and the council has continued to support the festival. The festival made a loss for the first four festivals until in 1994 it turned a profit.
Criticism of the council funding international acts in the first festival spawned an alternative event called Flying Kiwi focusing on local artists which was the genesis of the long running New Zealand Fringe Festival.
In 2012 looking back at the legacy of the festival, classical music critic John Button stated the festival placed Wellington as the cultural capital of New Zealand.
Wellington also had the Wellington Festival that was held every three years starting in 1959. The Wellington Festival Trust became the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts Trust.
Another National Arts Festival was run by the NZ Student's arts council in 1977 involving, film, publications, happenings, music, dance, theatre, puppetry.

## Programme

A range of dance, theatre, music and outdoor events have been programmed over the years. This is across classical and contemporary includes some free events. The festival includes a literary Writers and Readers festival with Janet Frame one of the participants in 1986.
The programme includes international acts, many not seen before in New Zealand. A small selection is named here to give an indication. The Staatskapelle Berlin State Orchestra played at the first festival in 1986 and was the first overseas orchestra to play in New Zealand in twelve years. Sacred Monsters with dancers Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan was a hit. The Dragons' Trilogy by Ex Machina (dir. Robert Lepage) in 2008 was notable for the positive reviews and for the five and a half hours length.
The New Zealand Festival of the Arts also has a commissioning and partnership programme for New Zealand work and has premiered many productions. The playwright Hone Kouka has had three productions premiered at the festival, Waiora (1996), Home Fires (1998) and The Prophet (2004).
There is a literary programme as part of the festival, in 2020 it was expanded to three weeks. The 2022 literary programme was created by Claire Mabey, the director of Verb Festival and LitCrawl Wellington and was online. The programme included talks with Mariana Mazzucato, N K Jemisin, Clementine Ford, Emily Writes and a celebration of 30 years of HUIA publishing with co-founder Robyn Rangihuia Bargh and current directors Brian Morris and Eboni Waitere.
Other parts of the 2022 festival programme were cancelled or scaled down due to COVID-19 public health measures.

## Organisation

The New Zealand Festival is a charitable trust with a board of trustees and is funded by a number of public and private organisations. These include Creative New Zealand and the Wellington City Council. There are a core staff on a salary and numbers increase in preparation for their events.

### Tāwhiri

In 2014 there was a re-organisation and re-branding of an umbrella organisation to Tāwhiri: Festivals and Experiences. Tāwhiri core staff organise and programme the New Zealand Festival of Arts, and also the Wellington Jazz Festival, Lexus Song Quest (formerly the Mobil Song Quest), and Second Unit.
In 2020 the arts festival diverged in its artistic choices by using three curators for programming the three weeks. These people were Lemi Ponifasio, Laurie Anderson and Bret McKenzie.
Mere Boynton was appointed late in 2019 in 2022 the arts festival had half the content Māori and Indigenous works. Boynton was also instrumental in establishing Te Hui Ahurei Reo Māori an annual Māori language festival that started n 2022 as part of the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the presentation of the Māori language petition to Parliament.

### Festival Directors

| Festival Year | Leadership team |
| 1986 & 1988 | Michael Maxwell (artistic director) |
| 1990 & 1992 | Christopher Doig (artistic director) |
| 1994 | Rob Brookman (artistic director) |
| 1996 | Joseph Seelig (artistic director), Carla Van Zon (executive director) |
| 1996, 1998 & 2000 | Joseph Seelig (artistic director) |
| 2002, 2004 & 2006 | Carla Van Zon (artistic director), David Inns (executive director) |
| 2008 | Lissa Twomey (artistic director), David Inns (executive director) |
| 2010 & 2012 | Lissa Twomey (artistic director), Sue Paterson ONZM (executive director) |
| 2014, 2016 | Shelagh Magadza (artistic director) |
| 2018 | Shelagh Magadza (artistic director), Meg Williams (executive director) |
| 2020 | Marnie Karmelita (artistic director), Meg Williams (executive director) |
| 2022 | Marnie Karmelita (artistic director), Mere Boynton (Director Ngā Toi Māori), Meg Williams (executive director) |