by Tiki East

2007 was a particularly good year for the Arts in New Zealand. Here’s my personal selection of some of the highlights. Let me know what I’ve left out. If you are a cultural organisation, post a comment here and let me know what your successes of 2007 were.

Lloyd Jones‘ Mister Pip gained international fame and acclaim and was a serious runner for the 2008 Booker Prize.

Southern Opera relaunched with Carmen. The New Dowse, Tauranga Art Gallery, Franklin Arts & Cultural Centre and the Riverton Heritage Centre all opened their doors, proving yet again that the regions are not cultural wastelands.

A Dominion Day symposium was held in Wellington where the very clever Charles Royal caused a buzz with his view of the future of Māori and Pākehā and a re-understanding of the term Tangata Whenua. Read it here.

WOMAD became annual and Parihaka went off. It was the year for regional festivals. Three spectacular events, Body Art Awards and National Jewellery Showcase and Māori Market returned.

Luncheon Under the Ash Trees toured treasures, Toi Te Papa continued showing the treasures and Jingle Jangle Morning, an exhibition of Bill Hammond’s work, was simply glorious.

The Marti Friedlander Photographic Award launched, and we had two wonderful touring photo exhibitions by Ans Westra and Laurence Aberhart.

Craft became cool again thanks to Craftwerk and Craft 2.0, easing and promoting inter-generational relationships – making the world a better place.

The government started talk around Artist Resale Royalties which generated a huge amount of debate. Although the response was mixed, at least we were talking about art.

Loved by almost everybody, Outrageous Fortune announced a 4th season and Cheryl West was given the title Sexiest Woman of the Year and Auckland Woman of the Year. NZ television we love!

The Flight of the Conchords rocked the party – Wellingtonians of the Year twice, Grammy-nominated, much adored. Rumour has it that one prestigious restaurant’s staff walked out of the kitchen in the middle of service to give Jemaine a rousing applause as he walked down the street.

Eagle vs Shark won the hearts and minds of those it was meant to, got a mix of reviews from the rest including ‘quirky’ from the New York Times and disrespected by other morons as being a rip off of Napoleon Dynamite.

Māori TV rocked the Anzac Day coverage. Demonstrating that quality NZ content isn’t impossible, Māori TV has given rise to a number of talented media stars, and provided bilingual education and entertainment. This channel is worth watching.

The Documentary Channel (launched Nov 2006) provided a good range of NZ content all year on a wide range of subjects. It had the good sense to shy away from the sensationalist reactionary tripe passing for documentaries, completely unlike Inside NZ.

Freeview launched, offering TV programmes and National Radio in digital quality with no monthly fees and no contracts. Best of all - it’s available nationwide. TVNZ 6 delivers quality family programming with a distinct NZ flavour.

The Royal Shakespeare Company came to town. Ian McKellen is so cool.

Tiki Taane left Salmonella Dub and recorded a deeply personal album including a strong Māori connection using Māori instruments. The Phoenix Foundation’s Happy Ending made us happy and live music favourite’s Kora finally released an album.

Shapeshifter worked with the APO and VWO and brought the house down in a truly joyous music collaboration. Little Bushman and An Emerald City did wonderfully different things to music. Hollie Smith didn’t, but did get signed to Blue Note.

SOUNZ - The Centre for New Zealand Music launched its revamped website offering accessibility of the music of New Zealand composers to anyone, anywhere via the internet.

NZ collecting organisations started to ‘get’ the Web and in turn let us get access to what taxpayers have been paying to protect. Te Ara have been doing it for years and organisations such as the National Library, Archives NZ and Auckland Art Gallery are increasing access and audiences to our rich cultural heritage.

NZ got a new sport obsession - football. Wellington Phoenix played Beckham in a game that saw him more on field than nearly any other ever. Women swooned and Wellington went wild.

But I think the cultural highlight of 2007 was The Big Picture. Hamish Keith opened up NZ art and history and art history and dispelled some rubbish we had always been taught, or led to believe. Simply magnificent. TVNZ, however, scheduled it at very unsociable times and continuously changed the start time so that it was difficult to record. Hopefully, the DVD will be out in 08.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Culture online, Events, Guest blogger - Tiki East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.