What's New At The Dowse?

Retrospect: A Contemporary Jewellery Show 2 February – 26 May 2013

Retrospect brings together the work of Peter Deckers, a well-known New Zealand jeweller, with twenty emerging and established contemporary jewellers, many of whom have been tutored by him or who have participated in projects with him. The show pays homage to Deckers and 'gives back' to him, as a mentor who has provided opportunity and inspiration for other jewellers.

Everyone Talks to Everyone 16 February – 9 June 2013 | FREE
Ten artists, 12 artworks, a blend of decorative and contemporary works, a fusion of cultures and perspectives - everyone is talking to everyone at The Dowse with the debut exhibition by 2012 Blumhardt Curatorial Intern, Ane Tonga. In the upstairs Blumhardt Gallery, Tonga mixes it up, juxtaposing new technologies with contemporary objects to show that 'handcrafted' can apply to both digital and traditional artworks. Everyone Talks To Everyone features the work of both emerging and established artists, many with roots in Asia and Polynesia: Alvie McKree, Fiona Pardington, Michael Parekowhai, Niki Hastings-McFall, Sean Kerr, Selina Woulfe, Sofia Tekela-Smith, Suji Park, Johann Nortje and Vaimaila Urale (watch a video with Vaimale).

Towns, Turrets & Taniwhas Tues 22 & Wed 23 January 2013, 10am-12pm | FREE

Families are invited to join the education team and create sand sculptures on the beach in front of Petone Settlers Museum. Remember to slip, slop, slap and cover! Check the website for cancellation due to weather.

The Global Game Challenge 5pm Fri 25 January – 5pm Sun 27 January 2013 | FREE

Watch Massey University School of Design students camp out at The Dowse and compete in the Global Game Jam. Held in over 120 countries, game developers have 48 hours to create a video game. Pop in over the weekend and see how they are doing!

Late Lounge with The Dickens Thurs 7 February 2013, 7pm | Koha

Join Wellington band The Dickens in February for a fun evening of great sounds. All galleries, cafe, cash bar and MINE: The Dowse Shop open until 9pm.

Talk & Tour: Retrospect Sat 2 February 2013, 1pm | FREE

Join curator Jo Mears and jeweller Peter Deckers to hear insights behind the work of the jewellers featured in the contemporary jewellery exhibition, Retrospect.

NO BOOKING REQUIRED

Talk & Tour: Everyone Talks To Everyone Sun 17 February, 2013, 3pm | FREE
Join Blumhardt Curatorial Intern, Ane Tonga, for a tour of her exhibition Everyone Talks to Everyone
NO BOOKING REQUIRED

Big Day Dowse Sun 24 March 2013, 12–6pm

Big Day Dowse is set to fly with the Phoenix Foundation & Anika Moa. The second annual Big Day Dowse is all warmed up and ready to soar in Dowse Square and The Dowse Art Museum, Sunday 24 March 2013, 12–6pm. Once again it's a big day out for all ages with a packed programme of live music, visual artists and incredible entertainers – and it's all FREE. Last year 5000 people partied in Dowse Square to the sounds of Rhombus and Bella Kalolo. In 2013 we welcome Wellington's favourite sons, The Phoenix Foundation, preceded by the fabulous Anika Moa and a line-up of other fantastic musicians.

MORE INFORMATION: www.dowse.org.nz/en/Events/Events/Big-Day-Dowse/

Ongoing Exhibitions…

Play 1 December 2012 – 1 April 2013 | FREE
'The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.' Plato. The Dowse will be awash with 'lovely things' this summer - stunning play furniture, playscapes and play-objects created by leading international designers will tempt design fanatics of all ages. The Silbery Longrun Season of Play, opening 1 December, features the work of world-renown design-heavyweights like Charles & Ray Eames, Enzo Mari, Verner Panton, Eero Aarnio as well as well-known companies like Bauhaus, Vitra, Magis and Sirch.

MEDIA RELEASE: http://www.dowse.org.nz/en/News/Latest-News/Come-and-Play-with-us-at-The-Dowse

Saskia Leek: Desk Collection 15 December 2012 – 14 April 2013 | FREE
With brown paper smoke pouring from its chimney, and a glimpse of a ghostly figure at the illuminated cloth window, Saskia Leek’s two metre cardboard caravan is by far the largest artwork in her new survey exhibition at The Dowse. In contrast, the title of the show, Desk Collection, stakes a claim for art that is intimate, hinting at the modest scale of Leek’s paintings and the fact that almost every one of them could have been produced at a desk. Desk Collection, which is also the name of a 2006 painting, features almost 60 of Leek’s artworks spanning 1994 to 2012.

“I never think about my works as being small, although they always have been. I paint them up close so they take up my whole view. I think of them as compact yet expansive, like a song or a book.” Saskia Leek

Desk Collection features works drawn from around New Zealand and Australia and from both public and private collections.

Arcade: Homegrown Video Games 10 November 2012 – 24 February 2013 | FREE
From Cletus Clay to Dungeon King, from hack and slash to butterfly play, The Dowse celebrates the talents of New Zealand's visionary game designers in Arcade. Arcade showcases the work of our most talented and influential indie gaming artists in an exhibition of striking visual effects, stunning digital art as well as still images, video and the actual games to play.

Lauren Winstone: Holding holes 27 October 2012 – 10 February 2013 | FREE
A ceramics exhibition by Auckland artist Lauren Winstone that draws on modernist forms to explore the relationship between parts and wholes. Holding holes features a range of hand-thrown ceramic pieces created especially for this show.

Closing Exhibitions…

Jeffrey Harris: By Definition 11 August – 27 January 2012 | FREE
A suite of 12 striking black and white aquatint prints from The Dowse Collection made by New Zealand artist Jeffrey Harris in 1988. Harris himself describes his practice as "a diary of painted pain". His recurrent themes are ones of loneliness, suffering and sacrifice.

ends

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Gordon Campbell: On The 2013 Budget

Among Thursday’s main talking points:

We are apparently on track for a margin-of-error $75 million surplus, now in sight for 2014/15. But this sickly creature is hobbling out of the lab on the basis of all kinds of facilitative conjuring: such as trimming by $200 million the amount of new spending next time around.

With this strictly nominal surplus in sight, the 1984-ish justification for eternal austerity will have a news talisman: namely, getting Crown debt down to 20% of GDP by 2020. More>>

Budget Report, Lockup Audio & Images: Budget Day 2013 As always and especially after the managerial mishaps of the past few weeks and months, (e.g. Aaron Gilmore, the Mighty River Power share float, the GCSB mishaps) Budget Day 2013 was always going to be a pageant of reassurance... More>>

Budget 2013 Comment: Plain Sailing, But It's No America's Cup Pattrick Smellie: Compared to the last four budgets, this year's reflects an economy moving out of recession and into calmer waters... Yet if the fastest annual growth rate we can expect over the next two years is 3 percent - with the Christchurch rebuild in full swing - then you'd have to say New Zealand's underlying low-growth problem is far from fixed. More>>

Auckland Discord: Govt’s Power Hungry Housing Approach A Threat - Labour

Last week the Government said this, ‘The Government commits not to use any proposed or existing powers ... to override the council's planning and consenting processes’. But its housing Bill says this; ‘If an accord cannot be reached in an area of severe housing unaffordability, the Government can intervene by establishing special housing areas and issuing consents for developers’. More>>

ALSO:

• NZ Govt - Housing accords legislation passes first reading - Legislation For Housing Accords, Land Supply - Housing package improves affordability, access
• Greens - Budget numbers show National’s failure on home affordability
• Auckland Chamber of Commerce - Budget 2013: Housing intervention needed
• Out-Link - Gareth Morgan: Response to housing problem limp-wristed
• Earlier, Pre-Budget - Auckland Accord announced

Extending Protest Ban, Relaxing Permit Rules: Govt Abuses Urgency To Extend Anadarko Amendment

The Government is trying to pass legislation under urgency which would make the Anadarko Amendment – which limits protest at sea – apply to an additional 1.7 million square kilometres, the Green Party said today. More>>

ALSO:

• Parliament Today - Parliament Resumes To Pass Budget Bills
• Labour - Government to extend protest ban
• Greenpeace NZ - Oil Companies Lacking ‘Expertise’ and ‘Financial Ability’ Set to Be Handed Drilling Permits
• 2010 image via: Pacific.Scoop - Media watcher gives NZ press nil score card for China oil spill coverage