12 August 2004

Four Antarctic Arts Fellows Announced

A poet, a painter, a jeweller and a furniture maker are the 2004/05 Antarctic Arts Fellows who will travel to Antarctica as a group early in December 2004 through Antarctica New Zealand's Arts, Education and Media programme.

The Artists to Antarctica programme is a joint initiative between Antarctica New Zealand and Creative New Zealand, and selects artists who are either prominent in their field or who are top emerging artists.

"This scheme gives New Zealand artists a rare opportunity to explore Antarctica, refresh their spirit and gain the inspiration while living at Scott Base for some unique, creative work," said Antarctica New Zealand CEO Lou Sanson.

Creative New Zealand also places great value on its partnership with Antarctica New Zealand.

"Antarctica's unique environment captures the imagination of artists," Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Elizabeth Kerr says. "Artists who have taken this journey have been deeply affected by the experience and have created wonderful, innovative work on their return from the ice."

This year Bernadette Hall and Kathryn Madill, prominent award winning poet and artist, plan to produce an illustrated book and a series of exhibitions based on their Antarctic experiences. Hall's prose and Madill's delicate imagery were linked together previously in Settler Dreaming, a collaborative work short-listed for the Tasmania Pacific Poetry Award.
Kirsten Haydon, the first jeweller/fine metal artist to visit Antarctica through any artist's programme, will create a collection of commemorative jewellery and objects relating to landscape, flora and fauna. Kirsten has a growing international reputation, exhibiting in the Talente 2000 in Munich, and is currently showing at the Dowse Art Gallery in Lower Hutt.
Contemporary furniture designer/maker, David Trubridge will also visit Antarctica this season. He was meant to go last year but broke his leg, so his visit has been rescheduled. David's interest lies in the history of polar exploration and he plans to develop a series of works based around the theme 'Structures for Survival'.

For further information please contact:

Background notes:

The Artists to Antarctica programme is a partnership between Antarctica New Zealand and Creative New Zealand, which began in 1997.

It aims to fulfill four separate yet related aims:

1. To increase public awareness of:

- Antarctica and its national and global importance
- The relationship between arts and science
- Antarctica New Zealand
- Creative New Zealand
- Individual artists.

2. To develop the individual's potential and make an impression on an artist's work over time.

3. To develop a major Antarctic collection for New Zealand.

4. To provide otherwise unlikely networking and collaborative art and literature projects between diverse artists and artistic mediums and between scientists and artists in a variety of fields.

The programme aims to cater over time for a wide variety of artistic styles and audiences that reflect the diversity of Antarctica.

Previous Antarctic Fellows include:

- Poet Chris Orsman,
- Painters Nigel Brown, Margaret Elliot and Richard Thompson,
- Children's author Margaret Mahy,
- Sculptor Virginia King,
- Ceramicist Raewyn Atkinson,
- Dance choreographer Bronwyn Judge,
- Printmaker Dee Copland,
- Photographer Anne Noble,
- Composer Chris Cree-Brown,
- Fashion designer Fieke Newman,
- Intermedia artist Phil Dadson and
- Author Laurence Fearnly.

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