For art’s sake
Guest curators and a more accessible approach are part of a plan to reinvent the biennial New Zealand Festival, writes Sarah Catherall.
Bold, creative plans for the New Zealand Festival
In the age of Spotify and Netflix, when we are sent tips on what to watch and listen to, the New Zealand Festival is taking a similar approach next year. For the first time in the festival’s 33-year history, it has engaged three high-profile artists as guest curators; Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, Auckland director and choreographer Lemi Ponifasio, and Grammy Award-winning artist and musician Laurie Anderson.
The shift is a bold but smart move for the festival, as it tries to lure the next generation of funders and audiences, and to continue to appeal to broader audiences in a crowded arts and events landscape.
Neither McKenzie nor Ponifasio have curated a festival before, but both are practising artists with an international profile and strong networks – the festival’s criteria when seeking its inaugural guest curators. Anderson had previously curated the United Kingdom’s Brighton Festival.
All influencers in the arts, each has tapped into their impressive networks to organise or create some events over a week each of the three-week festival, in what the artistic director Marnie Karmelita says will help audiences select events based on their recommendations. It also helps distinguish the festival from the many other festivals, concerts and events now offered in New Zealand. The hope is for more connection between artists, curators and audiences – guest curators will be at events to meet and mingle with ticket-holders.
Says Karmelita: ‘‘We need to move away from a single artistic voice choosing events and invite a range of different voices so people feel connected. We thought about Netflix and Spotify, that people are sent a selection of choices of what to watch, and what if we reframed the festival to offer different selections this way?’’
Under the sweeping shakeup, it will offer more exclusives than ever – up from 18 last year to 32. The country’s biggest arts festival will continue to piggyback on the Sydney, Adelaide and Perth festivals, bringing artists to Wellington from those events to share costs.
While it will also continue to co-produce productions with the Auckland Arts Festival, it will stage more of its own unique events. Ponifasio is offering events made specifically for Wellington – Chosen and Beloved, Jerusalem, Talanoa Mau and Te Ata are all events created for the festival.
Leading these changes is the female powerhouse duo of Meg Williams, the 32-year-old executive director, and Karmelita, who together are known for their empathetic, collaborative approach. The late Sue Paterson, who led the festival since 2009, groomed Williams to take over.
Williams says the festival had to evolve to meet a changing world. In 2014, dropping from three weeks to two, or making it an annual event – like the growing Auckland Arts Festival – were considered.
Instead, it was decided to run multiple events – along with the winter Jazz Festival, it has pioneered a new film theatre experience, Second Unit, which will produce an immersive production each winter, and also runs the Lexus Song Quest.