04 Dec 2017
Following a highly successful 2014 season, New Zealand artists returned to the Edinburgh festivals in August.
The 2017 season featured New Zealand theatre, literature, music, visual arts, comedy and family shows that received strong reviews and coverage in international and New Zealand media.
This year’s artists explored themes around desperation, devastation and negotiation; the beauty of community in salvation; the hopes and failings and potential transformation of people; sexual empowerment, gender equality and friendship; as well as a highly charged look at prejudice through the eyes of a Caribbean DJ. There was also a homage to New Zealand Māori show bands with a contemporary ‘Rat Pack’ twist.
“The Edinburgh festivals offer a unique international opportunity for New Zealand artists, and it was a pleasure to support such a strong and varied season of New Zealand work across these global platforms.”
– Cath Cardiff, Creative New Zealand Senior Manager for International
Alongside the NZ at Edinburgh Season, Creative New Zealand and the British Council in New Zealand supported 11 Kiwi artists to engage in two bespoke development programmes. These were aimed at helping artists increase their international experience and build relationships for future presentations and collaborations.
Eight artists participated in the Edinburgh festivals’ annual international delegate programme Momentum, which focuses on building relationships with United Kingdom and other international artists, presenters, producers, publishers, curators and cultural partners. Three New Zealand performers joined those from Scotland and Hong Kong on a new programme, International Co-lab, to look at creating new work which, one day, might be performed in each of their home countries.
Artform – Multidisciplinary
Location – Edinburgh, Scotland
Funding – International Presentation Fund $219,094
This is one of 10 stories from our Annual Report 2016/17 about the diverse range of arts projects and organisations that Creative New Zealand funded.
For a quick visual overview of how much revenue was received and how it was invested see Our Year in Review: Creative New Zealand
For detailed information see Arts Council of New Zealand (Creative New Zealand) Annual Report 2016/17 (PDF 1.7MB)
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