Arts & Minds: 2001: what a year

By LINDA HERRICK

2001: what a year. Certainly one that has caused reflection on the things that really matter. In the context of this year's ongoing global trauma, Arts & Minds asked the heads of our major arts institutions to take stock at a time when music, dance, the visual arts and theatre can offer a haven of beauty in a world battered by the madness of politics. Despite events since the September 11 turning point, the mood seems positive ...

Says Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki director Chris Saines, focusing specifically on that fateful day, "Yes, of course September 11 changed the mood of the art community as it did the entire world, but it was also a sharp reminder of the countervailing spirit of the arts. That ability to respond to extraordinary experience and to seek to make meaning from it ... I remember looking again soon after at Peter Robinson's Twin Towers - a kind of large, sans serif Roman numeral 'II' - that stood in counterpoint to the Brandenberg Gate in his witty Strategic Plan painting of 1998.

"When our patrons acquired that work for us in 1999 I thought of the towers and the gate as savvy emblems of the new and old world orders ... the changing face of cultural imperialism.

"When showing guests through Purangiaho Seeing Clearly in late September, the meaning of that painting changed for me in ways I couldn't at first explain."

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra chief executive Ian Fraser describes 2001 as a "rock'n'roll" year. "The 'roll' is evident in performance, at the box office and on the bottom line," he says. "These days we are playing more often than not to near-capacity houses and over the past year we have had the slightly perverse pleasure of having to put out the 'house full' sign.

"It was a rock and rolling sort of year even before the apocalypse of September 11. But at times like these music becomes so much more important, with its power to enrich and console."

2001 saw a changing of the guard at the Royal New Zealand Ballet, with artistic director Matz Skoog moving to London and the same position at English National Ballet, taking rehearsal director Fiona Tonkin with him. Losing the much-liked Skoog was an emotional wrench, says general manager Sue Paterson, but newcomer Gary Harris (ex-Royal Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet) already has a big vision: to tour the company offshore as "the ballet company of the Pacific".

The RNZB went on the road during the year and visited 46 small centres usually bypassed by the major arts institutions. The result, recorded in the TV documentary Tutus and Town Halls, was a mutual love affair: the audiences were excited by what they were seeing on the often-cramped stages, and the dancers enjoyed working hard for such appreciative fans.

Aside from that, Paterson counts the Ihi FrENZy season, which combined dance with kapa haka group Te Matarae I Orehu, as one of the year's highlights, blending dance, kapa haka and the music of Split Enz.

Auckland Philharmonia lit the candles and celebrated its 21st birthday in November. "The significance of a 21st is important because it captures that time where recognition of growth is coupled with looking ahead," says GM Anne Rodda. "This year has left significant impressions. We launched our latest CD, recorded live from our concert of Ravel and Prokofiev with Michael Houstoun and Miguel Harth-Bedoya [artistic director]."

The orchestra gained international exposure through its playing for the Michael Hill World Violin Competition, and flew south for the Christchurch Arts Festival. Its composer-in-residence, Gillian Whitehead, won the SOUNZ Contemporary Award in the APRA Music Awards, nnd, trumpets Rodda, "we put the sold-out sign out four times this year".

The Auckland Theatre Company is also in good heart "after a somewhat underwhelming year 2000", according to producer Simon Prast. The ATC now has 50 productions under its belt and has set up a raft of training and education schemes to bring on the next generation of talent and audience. Ten new NZ plays were workshopped in its 2econd Unit Playreading series, with two of them - Tom Scott's The Daylight Atheist and Stephen Sinclair's The Bellbird - being staged next year.

Prast and co see out 2001 with an extended run of Hair (more than 18,000 tickets sold), so they will be praying for a similar success with next year's finale, The Rocky Horror Show - hints already that creator Richard O'Brien will be there.