Arts Legends Aotearoa
This year is the 25th anniversary of the inception of the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi laureates programme. Arts Legends Aotearoa has been published to mark this milestone. The gorgeous, festive, pink cover of Arts Legends Aotearoa, its bottom half overlaid with a large sunshiny yellow logo, is bound to draw readers in.
The book celebrates the 145 outstanding artists, painters, writers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, sculptors, composers and more who have been awarded an Arts Foundation laureate over the last 25 years. It also pays tribute to the generous philanthropists from The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi who have made these awards possible.
In Arts Legends Aotearoa 127 leading New Zealand Arts writers were each matched with a laureate and commissioned to write a story to celebrate their life and achievements. Many were well acquainted with their laureate, having been mentored, taught by or worked alongside them. Their stories have made their laureates proud. Each story has been beautifully crafted.
Peter Ireland waxes lyrically when writing about photographer Laurence Aberhart (2013) as he describes how in his photography he ‘spins the straw of the ordinary into extraordinary gold, not merely to please the eye but to extend the experience of being here and now.’
Tania Waikato captures how musician Whirimako Black sings ‘in a way that sound can carry whakapapa, warm and rich like the deep red uku of Papatūānuku and yet transcendent like the mist mother of her Tūhoe people.’
Lyne Pringle evokes a poetic image of choreographer, and dancer Shona McCullagh. She compares her to the kohekohe flower. ‘Her grounded presence and graceful sophistication offers nourishment beyond herself. Te ngahere kanikani o Aotearoa is all the richer for her artistry and kaitiakitanga.’
Eve de Castro-Robinson’s description of Gareth Farr as ‘always a creative whirlwind on legs’ made me chuckle.
Each laureate’s story fills one side of a double-page spread; on the other is a full-page photograph that has been carefully chosen to capture their individual personalities. The different choices of how and where the laureate should pose bring their characters to life. These photographs add so much to the pleasure of reading this book.
The purpose of the Laureate awards is to honour established, practicing New Zealand artists who have made lasting contributions to culture and the arts.
The beauty of these awards is that, as well as being very generous ($50,000 per laureate), there are no strings attached. Laureates are free to use their award however they choose. At a time when the dwindling amount the government gives to the Arts and their requirement that grants should have measurable outcomes makes these awards especially wonderful.
Making a living as a full-time artist is precarious. Some of the laureates have indicated that they were on the cusp of giving up being a full-time artist when this award arrived out of the blue and it enabled them to carry on.
Five conversations between longtime major Arts Foundation philanthropists, a laureate, and the Kaiwhakahaere Director of the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Jessica Palagi have also been included. Here we meet some of the special people whose love of the arts convinced them to support the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi so generously. In these face-to-face interviews, they were able to share with their laureate how much joy it has given them to support them.
Laureates share with the philanthropists how much being a laureate meant to them, and how having been given the freedom to spend their grant with no strings attached allowed them to explore new directions and plan new projects. The grants also enabled them to give back to their communities and to help others to shine.
All arts lovers will want to acquire a copy of this stunning book. It is a taonga that should be on the shelves of every school library so that every student who loves to paint, to make music, to dance or participates in any of the Arts can borrow it. The laureates are amazing role models. Reading their stories, about the pathways they followed, and their determination to succeed, might well encourage students to follow their dreams of becoming an artist and to reach for the stars.
Reviewer: Lyn Potter
Massey University Press
