Fringe NZ Flies Into New Initiatives

Fringe NZ Flies Into New Initiatives

It’s been ten fast years since Fringe NZ began and the Wellington-based festival is looking for participants from all around the country to help its tenth birthday soar into orbit.

“We’ve got new initiatives in 2003 that celebrate artistic diversity and push creative frontiers,” said Tim Renner, Director of the Fringe NZ Festival. “In addition to all the usual wackiness we’re taking a leap into the worlds of new media and visual arts next year.”

New in the 2003 Fringe will be “Fast Works” an exhibition of new media works that explore boundaries. Fast Works is presented in association with (e)-vision, Wellington’s only digital media centre.

“With Fast Works Fringe NZ is creating an open access platform for innovative technology-based art. New media artists often suffer because of big presentation costs and Fast Works will provide resources to relieve some of that pressure.”

“We hope this will allow them to create stunning work with no limits other than those imposed by technology and their own imagination,” said Renner.

Another first for Fringe NZ in the 2003 Festival is a Visual Tourists Weekend, where artists open their studios to the public. Visual Tourists is produced with assistance from Capital Times, Wellington’s arts and what’s on newspaper.

“Visual Tourists is the first organised opportunity for Wellingtonians to meet a number of our artists on their own turf. It’s a chance for artists to present their ideas and themes and for the art public to discuss the art with its originators,” Renner said.

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