World-Class Creative Learning Centre Launched in Wellington

World-Class Creative Learning Centre Launched in Wellington

24th May

Wellington’s creative community is set to benefit from the build of a new $22.5 million campus which will produce more than 1000 graduates each year to support New Zealand’s flourishing film, creative technology and applied arts industries.
Te Auaha New Zealand Institute of Applied Creativity has been established to provide a world-class learning facility in Wellington, New Zealand’s creative capital. The name Te Auaha means ‘to shape, create, form, fashion, create and innovate’ and reflects the exciting mix of programmes to be delivered in the campus.

Te Kāhui Auaha which means ‘the cluster of creativity’ is the name provided by Te Ātiawa for the campus building.

Established by Whitireia New Zealand and the Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec), Te Auaha brings together programmes from Whitireia’s and WelTec’s visual and performing arts, design, media and creative technologies. The new campus will provide a dynamic learning environment for students with world-class facilities, including a performance theatre, in-house cinema, music studios, photograph studies, workshops, hair and makeup studios, digital labs, and programmes that reflect industry requirements.

Launched this evening to around 200 industry leaders, business people, central and local government representatives and media, Te Auaha New Zealand Institute of Applied Creativity, located in Wellington’s creative precinct on Cuba Street will open for learning in early 2018. The campus build is part of a wider development of the old DEKA building by Willis Bond & Co.

“Te Auaha New Zealand Institute of Applied Creativity will be unique in New Zealand bringing together an incredible range of tertiary education options for aspiring film directors, producers, musicians, artists and artisans, jewellers, photographers, graphic designers, animators, broadcasters and stage and screen performers,” says Roger Sowry, Council Chair of Whitireia and WelTec.

This evening’s launch included an array of live performances showcasing the best from the new Institute’s programmes, alongside speeches from Minister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment Hon Steven Joyce and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Hon Maggie Barry.

High profile creative sector ambassadors were announced at the event to represent Te Auaha. The inaugural ambassadors drawn from a number of the areas in which Whitireia and WelTec teach are: renowned writer Dame Fiona Kidman; creative performance director and entrepreneur Dame Suzie Moncrieff; musician and composer Barnaby Weir; digital technologist Scott Houston; makeup artist Gino Acevedo; and internationally acclaimed choreographer Malia Johnston.

“We are very excited to have these ambassadors on board supporting this important development in Wellington,” says Whitireia and WelTec Chief Executive Chris Gosling.
“The ambassadors are all incredibly well known in their field of expertise and it is an immense privilege to have them supporting Te Auaha and helping us tell the Te Auaha story to the rest of the country and the world.”

Construction of Te Kāhui Auaha is well underway and will include an impressive array of learning spaces including 9,000m2 of dance studios, rehearsal and performance spaces, recording studios, mixing rooms and an in-house radio station, studios and salons for hair, beauty and make-up artistry, workshops for woodwork, jewellery making and sculpture, film photography studio and dark rooms, a 250 seat theatre and a 60 seat cinema.

ENDS

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