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Artists Wanted To Record Conservation Heritage

Published: Tue 30 Apr 2002 10:15 AM
Embargoed until 9.30am Tuesday 30 April 2002
Artists Wanted To Record NZ's Conservation Heritage
Conservation Minister Sandra Lee and Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Judith Tizard today launched ‘Wild Creations’, a new scheme to encourage artists to create work inspired by New Zealand’s natural and historic resources.
"Artists are being enlisted to record New Zealand's conservation heritage," Ms Lee and Ms Tizard said. "They'll be free to explore the environment and challenges of their location through any cultural tradition or artistic medium, including craft, choreography, photography, painting, sculpture, literature or music.
"The DOC-Creative New Zealand partnership will match three artists to separate locations with unique conservation values, where they will spend up to six weeks researching new works. DOC will host each artist while Creative New Zealand will pay each a stipend. The scheme is a good example of crown agencies working together to offer opportunities to artists and to increase general awareness of New Zealand's cultural heritage and conservation values.
"For the Department of Conservation these artist residencies are a way of promoting the country's natural and historic heritage. For Creative New Zealand and the artists it supports, the residencies are a valuable opportunity to create work in our protected spaces and be informed by them. The scheme will increase the artistic documentation of the country’s natural and cultural heritage."
The Ministers said the scheme would run as a pilot project for the first year, and would then be reassessed; if deemed a success, they hoped it could become an annual programme. Artists wishing to take part in the pilot will need to forward a written expression of interest to the Department of Conservation by 28 June 2002. The artists will have 14-possible residency locations to choose from, representing a diversity of Conservation sites, and will base their applications on these locations. The first three artists will be selected mid-2002 by a joint DOC-Creative New Zealand panel, and take up their residencies over the summer of 2002/2003.
Ends

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