Pollinating the Arts in Thorndon

A Thorndon writers’ residency, composers’ residency and artists’ residency all within five minutes walk of each other have been making art with a capital A-R-T. The initials stand for Art Residencies Thorndon which was a proposal put forward by the Friends of the Randell Cottage Writers Trust – which I chair – around 18 months ago. We called meetings with trustees of the Randell, the Lilburn [composers] and the Rita Angus [artists] residencies and put ART on the table as a way of bringing together our expertise and ideas, providing support, and creating one banner or brand for funding and publicity. We also underlined the importance of including the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace in any arts structure.

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While ART hasn’t moved forward in formal terms, mainly due to time constraints and a desire to keep the individual nature of the residencies, the concept has been taken up with enthusiasm, and opened the way to some exciting creativity in Thorndon.

Here’s a bit of history: The Randell Cottage Creative NZ Writers Residency at 14 St Mary Street has been hosting writers since 2001. Donated by the Randell/Price Family, it alternates a NZ writer with a French writer for six months about and is funded by Creative NZ and the French Government. At nearby 194a Sydney Street West, the Rita Angus Residency was also established about eight years ago, and is run through Massey University and the Thorndon Society. The incumbent artist used to have the cottage for three to six months but that’s been reduced to around two months now due largely to funding issues. In 2004, the Lilburn Residence began at 22 Ascot Terrace – the former home of composer Douglas Lilburn and famously within sight of the Rita Angus Cottage. The residence is linked to the NZ School of Music’s composer-in-residence programme and is funded by the City Council and a small rental paid by the resident composer.

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The main spin-off from the initial ART proposal has been the way the trustees and others who support the residencies are more aware of each other’s needs and areas of interest, and work to include all three houses and the KM Birthplace in their events, especially in and around Open Days. There have also been discounts for related events such as a recent Lilburn concert at the Town Hall, and proposals for a joint Open Day and a combined exhibition of residents’ work.

These gestures have begun to open up links between the resident artists. This year’s French writer in residence at the Randell Cottage – Olivier Bleys – was keen to meet up with the Douglas Lilburn fellow to discuss working on an opera together. It was organised so an invitation was sent for him to attend drinks at the Lilburn Residence, but Bleys was away researching his novel and unable to make it. The opera was never written, but the idea highlighted the creative potential in the residents – who are often working in isolated splendour – being brought together.

The NZ writer who has replaced Bleys this year is Kirsty Gunn. She has returned to this country from Scotland and England to take up the residency and has already used the Randell Cottage contacts to pull the KM Birthplace and the Rita Angus Cottage into her orbit. Gunn’s project is a cross-genre book called Thorndon with Katherine Mansfield as a subject, so she is in regular communication with the Birthplace for research reasons.

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The writer is also collaborating with her sister, Scottish/NZ artist Merran Gunn, on a KM-inspired work on paper called I have seen the little lamp. This has led to Randell Cottage facilitating a meeting between the Gunn sisters and Rita Angus Cottage to discuss the possibilities of that residency as a way of continuing the collaboration.

Finally, by wonderful coincidence that the Lilburn composer in residence for 2009/10 is Scottish/NZ composer John Rae. I’ve just got off the phone to Kirsty Gunn who was alert to the potential. Now the lines are open between the residencies, it wouldn’t take much to organise a meeting between Gunn and Rae – assuming their tenures overlap - whereas 18 months ago, it would have seemed a difficult undertaking.

‘It makes perfect sense,’ says Kirsty Gunn, ‘that these creative endeavours in Thorndon should be linked. The proximity of the three cottages suggests all sorts of exciting cross-pollination.’

ENDS

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