Episode three of Election Murmurs was a colourful and robust affair. An exclusive interview with New Zealand First candidate Andy Foster traversed arts administration barriers, pro-am production models, and a bizarre bathrooms policy.
Jack McGee DAFT, the Disabled Artists’ Festival of Theatre is quietly one of the most radical projects in Aotearoa theatre. From the ground up, DAFT’s approach to supporting both its artists and its audiences is a thumb in the eye of the political establishment, a revolutionary act of giving a damn. I had the joy of sitting down with festival co-director (or as she and her team put it, co-dictator) ‘Creatif’ Kate Spencer, who gave me the full inside scoop. Here’s how DAFT are taking on the world.
 Our second episode of Election Murmurs features an exclusive interview with the National Party's Arts, Culture and Heritage spokesperson Simon O'Connor reveals that a change of government would have no plans to invest further in the arts.
 In our first episode of Election Murmurs Austin Harrison interviews incumbent Minister for arts, culture and heritage Carmel Sepuloni about how her government has overseen the sector over the past three years, and where she sees policy progress in the future.
Austin Harrison Photo of Austin Harrison looking puzzled in high vis by Mandy Eeva from Apartment by Tama Smith It’s been a hectic couple of months at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington as the University announced a $33 million deficit, and a proposal to cut 229 full-time staff. Among these proposed cuts comes the gutting of the VUW theatre department, reducing it from 10 academic staff to four, disestablishing a technician and folding the department into English and Creative Communications, from which the department was born 40 years ago and has since created it’s own programme, academia, and made it’s own mark on Aotearoa New Zealand theatre. I’m a VUW theatre grad, and here is why I firmly believe we must #saveVUWtheatre. |