24 Mar 2015
Placements for the recipients of 2015’s Pasifika internships have been confirmed. The internships help potential pacific arts managers and leaders to build their arts management skills, are funded by Creative New Zealand, and delivered by Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust.
Jodi Meadows’ internship will be at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Faith Wilson will join the team putting together Writer’s Week in 2016’s New Zealand Festival, and Joy Vaele’s internship is with the Auckland Arts Festival.
“While Pacific artists are producing some of New Zealand’s most exciting art, Pacific people are less visible in the arts management realm,” says Tautai's Internship Project Liaison person, Janet Lilo – who is a respected visual artist, co-chair of Tautai’s trust board, and teaches at Elam School of Fine Arts and Unitec.
She has experience working with Creative New Zealand and is excited at the professional development opportunities to learn more about the business end of things that the Pacifika Internships provide.
“These internships give the recipient artists access to the organisations’ knowledge and experience, and the opportunity to operate at a higher industry level. The placements are a great opportunity to develop arts management skills and enhance understandings about the context, timing, planning, funding, promotion and management that underpins a successful project.”
Creative New Zealand funds the internships, and contracts Tautai to deliver them. The internships are open to New Zealand residents of Pacific heritage with a tertiary qualification and/or at least three years continuous experience working as an artist, practitioner or administrator. Tautai selects the interns after a process of advertising, short-listing and interviewing.
Tautai has a proven track record of successfully developing and delivering professional development programmes in the arts and/or tertiary sectors across New Zealand. “The Trust has a strong knowledge of, and networks within, New Zealand arts and cultural institutions,” says manager Christina Jeffery.
“Tautai occupies a unique niche in the Aotearoa/New Zealand arts world as an organisation facilitating the development of contemporary pacific art and artists,” Christina says. “This includes raising the profile of Pacific art nationally and internationally, and fulfilling artists’ aspirations to manage and lead arts projects. We aim to provide leadership, and an infrastructure, in the development of Pacific art and artists.”
Janet Lilo, internships project liaison, Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust
T: 022 157 0486
E: syne2@hotmail.com
W: www.tautai.org.nz
Christina Jeffery, Manager, Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust
T: 021 373 402
E: manager@tautai.org
W: www.tautai.org
For media assistance, contact: Victor van Wetering
T: 09 849 6565
E: victorvw@xtra.co.nz
W: www.tautai.org
2015 Pasifika Interns
Jodi Meadows, curator
After completing an undergraduate degree in Design Innovation at Victoria University, Jodi Meadows has now recently finished her final year of a Masters in Design Innovation, specialising in Culture and Context. Her research reflects an interest in the operation of visual spatial strategies in correlation to Oceanic creative practice in New Zealand. Jodi is a senior mentor in Te Rōpū Āwhina, supporting Māori and Pacific students on campus, and has recently completed an internship at Enjoy Gallery.
Faith Wilson, writer
Faith Wilson recently completed a Masters in Creative Writing in Poetry at Victoria University’s Institute of Modern Letters, after completing an Honours in English Literature there, and a B.A. in English and Philosophy at Waikato University. Faith is the recipient of the 2014 Biggs Family Prize in Poetry, a scholarship to enable a student who has completed a Masters of Creative Writing course to complete a manuscript for publication.
Since being appointed as Tautai’s Wellington Tertiary Liaison person in 2014, Faith has become more engaged with the art scene, building networks with Pacific Island tertiary art students, faculty members, and local curators and artists. Recent art projects include contributing to literary journals, performing at October’s Whau Arts Festival, being an artist’s assistant at Fresh Horizons workshops, and a street installation project.
Joy Vaele, actor
Joy was nominated in the 2014 New Zealand Film Awards in the Best Actress category for her role in The Last Saint. For the past 15 years, Joy Vaele has worked as an actor, stage hand, tour manager and playwright for various theatre companies, including the Pacific Underground Incorporated Society. She is interested in moving into related work, including production, as part of developing her career further.
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