May 14, 2009

PACIFIC CONTEMPORARY PERFORMING ARTISTS invited to apply for the Creative New Zealand Pacific Arts Committee Samoan residency 2009

The Pacific Arts Committee of Creative New Zealand, in partnership with The National University of Samoa, is calling for applications from artists to undertake a residency at The National University of Samoa in Apia, Samoa. The residency is for a period of three months (mid August 2009 – mid November 2009) and is open to all established contemporary performing artists of Pacific Islands heritage resident in New Zealand.

The closing date for applications is 5 pm Friday 22 May 2009.

The artform focus of this year’s residency is contemporary performing arts. The Pacific Arts Committee will offer the selected resident an artist’s stipend, accommodation and travel costs.

The 2009 residency aims to benefit both the selected artist and the Samoan arts community. It also aims to:

• provide an opportunity for an established New Zealand-based Pacific artist to interact and share his/her skills with the Samoan arts community
• encourage the development of contemporary performing arts skills among local school students, Samoan artists and the wider community
• provide the selected resident with security of income and access to resources, thus supporting the artist to gain professional development and develop a new body of work
• provide performing arts workshops for NUS students and the wider arts community.

The residency, which this year is open to contemporary performing artists, is an opportunity for artists across different artforms wanting to perform, exhibit or undertake research projects in Samoa. In 2006 the focus was performing arts and Nathaniel Lees was the recipient and in 2008 the focus was visual arts and Jim Vivieaere was the recipient. Creative New Zealand sees this residency as an important component of our commitment to invest in New Zealand Pacific communities strengthening and building cultural identity through the arts.

For more information and guidelines for this residency, please contact Felicity Birch at felicityb@creativenz.govt.nz or 04 498 0735. You can also download the guidelines from the Resources section of Creative New Zealand’s website – www.creativenz.govt.nz.