What’s on in Wellington this weekend
The new year has begun and there are loads of things to do in the capital this week, regardless of the weather.
Exhibitions
Wana Ake Festival Te Papa, until April 18
Create! Look! Explore! Celebrate summer at Te Papa with a dynamic festival of events, activities, exhibitions, and fun. Get up close with art, the world’s firstMa¯ori VR film, objects from the TVNZ 1 series National Treasures, clay makers, Ma¯ori and Pasifika art, skate culture, a garden in the sky, and more.
Summer exhibition
New Zealand Academy of Fine Art, until January 25
A summer exhibition showcasing more than 200 selected works – paintings of all styles and genres, ceramics, sculptures, fabrics and bronzes – curated by Suzanne Herschell, artist and life member of the academy.
Whitireia Visual Art show
Te Auaha, until February 10
This exhibition pays homage to craft design and other visual arts practices, with a selection of active practitioners who graduated from Whitireia’s arts programmes. Terminal
City Gallery, until February 14
This exhibition of international artists focuses on artmade about the airport, not for it. Planned in a pre-Covid world, curator Aaron Lister says: ‘‘Our relationship to the airport fundamentally changed over lockdown. No-one is flying internationally, borders are closed, the aviation industry is grounded. The work now reads differently – there is a new fissure.’’
Star Gossage: He Tangata The People
New Zealand Portrait Gallery, until February 14
Paintings by Star Gossage (Nga¯ti Wai, Nga¯ti Ruanui) emerge from her wa¯hine centred-world. Showing 20 years of her artistic practice, this complex and emotive exhibition illuminates her use of the portrait and figure in the landscape to communicate themes of unity, grief, compassion and aroha.
The Web of Time – Chiharu Shiota Te Papa
Renowned for her otherworldly and intricate ‘drawings in space’,
the thread installation made from 3750 balls of black wool will lead visitors through winding tunnels into a two-storey-high artwork built in level 4 and level 5 of Toi Art. Within this work one thousand numbers are intertwined in thread, suspended in space. Shiota believes numbers act as a universal language and a shared concept of time with the ability to define, as well as connect, people.
Things to do
Cinderella – The Pantomime (2021 Return Season)
Circa Theatre, from Saturday through to Thursday
Circa is offering a short return season of its Cinderella panto. Celebrate the new year with this fabulous family comedy, jampacked with singing, dancing, upto-the-minute jokes for the adults, and a sizeable dose of magic and slapstick for the kids.
Waterfront Pop Up Village
Open every day when the weather
allows
Shipping containers have become shops selling local art, design, apparel, jewellery and homeware on the waterfront near Te Papa and the Wharewaka.
Race day and summertime festivities
Tauherenikau Racecourse in Wairarapa, Saturday, January 2 This is a relaxed and communitydriven picnic day organised by the Wairarapa Racing Club, where families can enjoy the races and the competitions, bouncy castles and a special area with face-painting and magicians. For the adults there’ll be music and entertainment.
Sunday Jazz – BenanEm
The Rogue and Vagabond, 18 Garrett St, Sunday, January 4, from 5pm
The Rogue’s regular Sunday afternoon jazz, this week featuring local power couple Emma Hattaway and Ben Hunt, joined by Ayrton Foote (piano) and Shaun Anderson (drums). Repertoire is drawn from the Christian McBride album Fingerpainting: The Music of Herbie Hancock, with a few of their favourite tunes sprinkled in.