November 25, 2008

2008 ARTS FOUNDATION OF NEW ZEALAND NEW GENERATION AWARDS 

The Arts Foundation of New Zealand, Principal Sponsor Forsyth Barr, and Freemason’s New Zealand are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2008 Arts Foundation of New Zealand New Generation Awards.  Five artists have each received $25,000 and been recognised for their early achievements at the Awards, held in Christchurch on Monday evening, 24 November.

The Awards were presented by Freemasons New Zealand, who provided the funding of $125,000. The Awards are available to artists practicing in any art form, with recipients selected by a Curator without their knowing they are under consideration.   This year’s Curator was Gregory O’Brien, a Wellington-based writer, teacher, and painter.  Gregory said "the five artists chosen have a real urgency, excitement, commitment and originality in their work – a sense of building upon a tradition within their fields (finding sources of inspiration both in New Zealand and abroad) and also surging forth into the future."

The recipients of the 2008 New Generation Awards are music-maker Jeff Henderson, new media artist Alex Monteith, opera singer Madeleine Pierard, writer/actor Jo Randerson and writer Anna Sanderson.

Jeff Henderson – Music Maker
Jeff Henderson is a Wellington-based musician and an integral part of the New Zealand improvised music scene.   Committed to alternative music and venues, Jeff is a well-known solo improviser and multi-instrumentalist.  A saxophone and clarinet specialist, he also plays guitar, banjo, piano, percussion, and anything else that the music requires.  Jeff has performed with internationally renowned musicians such as Richard Nunns and Marilyn Crispell. He has an extensive history as an accompanist, participant in live musical theatre and other collaborative events. Jeff has also been involved in film, received major commissions, and features on many recorded releases.  He has toured internationally, performed at major festivals, and currently performs with the bands Fertility Festival, The Melancholy Babes and Colin McCabre.  He produces the Om the Space Festival, operates Happy performance venue and runs iiii records.

Alex Monteith – New Media Artist
Alex is a new media artist and academic whose work incorporates sound, performance, photography, film, video, kinetic and network components, while her practice explores the politics, freedoms and limits of consumer technology.  Her large-scale works involve collaboration with specialists from outside the art world including sheep-dog triallists and racing motorcyclists. Since 2000 Alex has regularly exhibited in art galleries, film festivals, on television and radio both nationally and internationally with screen-based works being programmed into new media shows, touring programmes and international film festivals. Alex won the overall festival prize at the International Surrealist Film Festival, Connecticut (2004). She has produced a 90 minute experimental documentary as well as a number of shorter experimental films.  Alex lives in Auckland and lectures at the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. 

Madeleine Pierard – Opera Singer
Madeleine Pierard became well-known nationally after winning the 2005 Lexus Song Quest. A 26-year-old lyric soprano from a large, musical family, Madeleine studied piano from an early age before turning to the voice as her instrument. She later completed a Bachelor in Music at Victoria University in Wellington and a Post Graduate Diploma at the Royal College of Music, London. She now studies with Lillian Watson at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School in London, where she has received a number of scholarships and awards. Madeleine’s recent opera roles have received glowing reviews around London, especially as Meleagro in Atalanta during the London Handel Festival. She has made numerous concert and oratorio appearances in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Highlights include guest appearances with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Donald McIntyre and Jonathan Lemalu, as soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on tour in China, and for HRH Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on Commonwealth Observance Day. Madeleine also has a particular interest in performing contemporary works, and has just completed two recordings with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Madeleine Pierard sings with The Orpheus Choir, the Choristers of Wellington Cathedral of St Paul and Vector Wellington Orchestra in the Australasian Premiere of Ecce Cor Meum, written by Sir Paul McCartney. Madeleine will also sing Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a work for solo soprano and orchestra, 8pm, Saturday 29 November at the Wellington Town Hall; she is soloist with the Tudor Consort and Vector Wellington Orchestra’s in their 4 December performance of Handel’s Messiah at the Wellington Town Hall at 7.30pm; and sings in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Celebrate Christmas Concerts at the Auckland Town Hall 7:30pm, 12 and 14 December.

Jo Randerson – Writer/Actor
Jo Randerson is a unique theatre-maker with extensive experience in comedy, poetry, literature and theatre.  Jo began writing and performing at Victoria University of Wellington.  Since then she has created over twenty shows, both independently and in collaboration with Laureates Briar Grace-Smith, Douglas Wright and as part of theatre company Trouble.  She founded Barbarian Productions in 2001, and has toured her shows to festivals nationally and internationally, earning prizes and critical acclaim for her original and darkly humorous creative vision. Jo’s books The Spit Children and The Keys to Hell have twice been short-listed for the IIML Prize in Modern Letters.  Jo received the Bruce Mason Playwrights’ Award in 1997 with her first play Fold, and was the Robert Burns Fellow in 2001.

Anna Sanderson – Writer
Anna Sanderson was born in Auckland and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Art History from the University of Auckland. In 1995 she, with Anna Miles and Tessa Laird, founded and co-edited the art review magazine Monica, and much of her published writing since then has been art related. In 2005, Anna studied for a Masters in Creative Writing at Victoria University of Wellington with Damien Wilkins. The resulting manuscript Brainpark, a work of non-fiction, was published the following year by Victoria University Press. Her essay received the Landfall essay prize in 2006. She lives in Wellington with her partner and two children.

Arts Foundation of New Zealand chairman Ros Burdon said the New Generation Awards are made to artists to provide an early boost. While New Generation Artists have high level achievements, they have many more years of art-making ahead of them. "The Awards enable recipients to invest the funds in new work or equipment, high level education or other development opportunities, or in some cases to buy time to focus on producing work. We are delighted to once again join with Freemasons and congratulate them all."  

Grand master of Presenting Sponsor Freemasons New Zealand, Stan Barker, said: "Freemasons New Zealand shares the Arts Foundation’s belief in the importance of celebrating artists whose futures are as exciting as their pasts, not just because the artists deserve support, but also because the arts enrich society."

The 2008 Arts Foundation of New Zealand New Generation Award recipients join 2006 recipients: visual artist Eve Armstrong, musician Warren Maxwell, writer Tze Ming Mok, jeweller Joe Sheehan, and film-maker Taika Waititi.

If you wish to find out more about New Zealand artists, arts patronage and how to become part of the Arts Foundation community, please visit our website: www.artsfoundation.org.nz