Pacific artists in the money

From hip-hop artists to jewellery-makers, Pacific artists of many persuasions will be recipients of financial assistance after the latest round of grants from the Pacific Arts Committee of Creative New Zealand.

And from support for small-scale local exhibitions and research projects to assistance for overseas exhibitions, the committee has acknowledged the diversity of Pacific arts and their potential for reaching into the wider world.

Grants totalling $137,690 have been given to 26 projects (out of a record 58 applications), among them $5000 to the Christchurch all-woman hip-hop outfit Sheelahroc to take part in next year's Adelaide Arts Festival and $4000 to Pacifica Dunedin Central to hold three weekend-long workshops conducted by Maori and Pacific Island master weavers to create works for an exhibition.

The Sydney art gallery Pacific-Artspace has been offered $5000 to support an exhibition at the Sydney College of the Arts (artists include John Ioane, Lily Aitui Laita and Niki Hastings-McFall), and Auckland jeweller and body adornment artist Sofia Tekela-Smith has been given $6000 to help her solo showing at Sydney's Mori Gallery this month.

Among the development grants are $6000 to Nightmare of Wellington to adapt Oscar Kightley's play Dawn Raid into a film script, $13,000 to VAhine of Whangaparaoa to research and develop new works based on star mounds and oral traditions in Western Samoa, and $6000 to the Waikato Museum of Art and History for an exhibition Dolly Mix (w)rapper opening in March, which will celebrate Samoan women artists, including photographers, painters and those working in installation/adornment.

Individuals receiving grants include Lisa Taouma of Auckland who gets $2700 to attend a symposium in New York next February, where she will present a paper and selections of her documentary work on Pacific art and images, Graham Fletcher of Auckland ($4000, towards publication costs of a catalogue to accompany his exhibition at Christchurch's Brooke Gifford Gallery), Misa Tupou of Hawaii ($6000 to present her two-person play Ola's Son at next year's Wellington Fringe Festival), and Makerita Urale of Wellington ($7000 to tour the multi-lingual fairytale Popo the Fairy in Samoa).

The committee also acknowledged festival showcases of Pacific arts with a grant of $5000 to the 2002 Smokefree Pacifica Beats award to encourage contemporary Pacific music and performance in the annual cokesmokefreerockquest, the Pacific Islands Community Committee of Hastings ($5000 to celebrate and showcase Pacific arts over the summer of 2001-02), the Wellington Fringe Festival Trust ($10,000 to promote and present the newly inaugurated Pacific Island arts section of the fringe), and the Public Dreams Trust of Hastings ($5000 to produce a Te Vaka performance at their community event on December 30-31).

In other awards, the band Ardijah of Manukau City have been awarded $5000 to create work fusing elements of Pacific and Maori music with their contemporary soul-funk style, Erupi Gaualofa of Taupo receives $2000 to run a workshop on Tokelau carving, and Genevieve Jackson of Mangere will get $2000 to present a live show and promote Niuean music.

Applications for the next funding round of the PAC close on February 22, and copies of the funding guide are available from Creative New Zealand offices.

Creative NZ