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Conference report
21 st Century Arts Conference, ‘This Time it’s Personal’ - 23-24 July 2011:
This report provides a summary of the key messages, keynote speeches and breakout
sessions at Creative New Zealand’s fourth annual 21st Century Arts Conference 2011 held
at the Aotea Centre, Auckland New Zealand.
As with previous 21 st Century Arts conferences, the conference theme was inspired by
Morris Hargreaves McIntyre’s model “The Seven Pillars of a 21 st Century Arts Organisation”.
Previous conferences looked in detail at “vision-led”, “brand-driven”, “outcome-oriented” and
“insight-guided”. This time the focus was on being “interactively- engaged” and
“personalised”.
The scene was set with a conference reader, distributed in advance to delegates. It
highlights the evolution of customer-focused service delivery; the development of the internet
and digital technologies, the democratising effect of these and the consequent blurring of the
lines between professional and amateur in the arts; changes in consumer values; and the
debate around the value of the arts, ending with the advice to “keep calm and carry on”.
“Don’t let the audience wag the artistic dog” was perhaps reassuring advice for some
companies thinking that their very raison d’etre may be imperilled by this new thinking.
Interactivity can take any number of forms; interactive strategies must stem from an
organisations’ artistic vision. To that extent, interactivity is, if not negotiable, at least able to
be tailored to each company or artist. But personalisation is not. “Arts engagement is deeply
personal. And arts engagement is what we want.”
The conference proceeded to challenge and reassure in equal measure; inspire and provide
food for reflection; and provide ways and means, and tips and insights into how others were
doing it, both through the conference sessions and from the networking with other delegates.
Welcome and Introduction
Alastair Carruthers, Chair, Arts Council
Video: Andrew McIntyre, Morris Hargreaves McInytre
The conference opened with a welcome address from Alastair Carruthers. “Interactivity and
personalisation matter in the arts now”, he told delegates, “because they matter to all of us in
our everyday lives”.
No art or artwork is complete until it engages an audience – and in many cases, the art lies
as much in the memory and conversations afterwards as in the actual experience of the art
itself. Many artworks require an audience to make the work complete. He cited Michael
Parakowhai’s carved piano on exhibit at the Venice Biennale. The piano is played by a
musical attendant, but the audience are also encouraged to cross the (physical and
metaphorical) line to perform – and are given a specially minted medal by the New Zealand
Biennale team if they do. The artwork thus created becomes both interactive and
personalised.

“Audiences”, he noted, “demonstrate their engagement through a range of responses – both
positively and negatively”. Participation and engagement are at the heart of what art does.
The challenge to arts practitioners is to break down barriers to engagement in the arts, to
work so that the gap between audience and artist is no longer a mysterious divide, and to
make experiences we create as artists and arts managers so engaging that “these
experiences are as commonplace as going to the supermarket”.
A short video from Andrew McIntyre (Morris Hargreaves McIntyre) discussed the themes
canvassed in the conference reader: the importance of cultural experiences emphasising
interaction as the way people engage with culture changes; the explosion in digital
technology; the challenges of dwindling younger audiences; and the current lively debate
about how we should relate to audiences.
Interaction, personalisation and co-creation are all part of the spectrum of audience
engagement. But growth of and interest in interactivity is not new. Artists and audiences
have interacted for centuries. “Twitter didn’t invent word of mouth” and audiences were
responding vociferously to theatre when Shakespeare was alive.
We’re told there is a “pro-am revolution” and that technology and the internet have
accelerated the move towards co-creation in the arts. “But is it true?” McIntyre questioned.
Will audience of the future stop wanting to consume art and only want to co-create?
“Interactivity is a powerful way to engage people in the arts, but it is not the only way.”
The arts can reach every human being and satisfy myriad human needs (intellectual, social,
emotional/aesthetic, spiritual) in myriad ways. Arts audiences are sophisticated, eclectic and
diverse. Interactivity and co-creation haven’t stopped people from losing themselves in a
favourite painting, or having the hairs on the back of their neck stand up when they hear a
particular piece of music. While personalisation is non-negotiable, interactivity should be
approached in a way that fits your artistic vision. And whatever you do, says McIntyre, you
should be relentlessly audience focused.
Welcome Keynote Address
Stephen Wainwright, Chief Executive Creative New Zealand
The 21 st Century Arts Conference, noted Stephen Wainwright, offers the arts community a
chance for reflection.
“We are still a young society”, he noted – “and one where the arts have not had the role they
may have played in longer-established societies”. He used his own up-bringing as an
illustration of how far removed many New Zealanders were from creative experiences as
they grew up in the ’50s and ’60s.
Rugby racing and beer dominated our national psyche, and in most families, often headed
by tradespeople, no one attended university. Mothers stayed at home, and formal education
(as little as a generation or two ago) ended with primary school. It’s only a generation or two
back that any boy who didn’t play rugby was labelled a sook or worse, and there is an
“ongoing suspicion in this country of the effete, the intellect and the ‘arty’.”
At the same time, society is underpinned by the New Zealand ideal of “fairness” and a work
ethic stemming from the Puritan roots of the early settlers. For Pakeha boys at least, recalled

Wainwright, “there was no encouragement to express emotion and feeling”; the physically
remote and isolated male was epitomised in the humble All Black, who having scored the
winning try, jogged back to the centre, eyes downcast, “wondering what the hell the bloody
commotion was all about”.
There wasn’t, as Wainwright put it, “a lot going on encouraging creativity and emotion.”
But powerful forces were unleashed in the ’60s and ’70s: feminism, the expansion of
universities, easy and affordable international air travel. Internal Affairs started supporting
artists to travel overseas. And the counterculture movement from the late ’60s and the
protest movement of the ’70s provided a wake-up call to artists. For not quite the first time,
artists began expressing themselves in the New Zealand idiom, and outside formal
education there were growing opportunities to participate in the arts.
Fast forward to 2011. “It is hard not to draw the conclusion that the most remarkable
progress had occurred… In a short time, as a culture, we’ve raced up Maslow’s hierarchy.”
There is a proliferation of opportunities for artists to make art and for people to engage with
it; of arts and cultural festivals in cities and communities all over the country; and
opportunities to see and experience art.
For art to flourish a society needs the creation of art works, places to make it happen and
audiences to engage with it. There has been investment from private enterprise and the
state; the building of Te Papa, the establishmentof the Maori Language Commission;
support for local content on television and radio, to name just a few initiatives. In short, we
have left cultural cringe in our wake and developed a degree of comfort in our own identity –
and in expressing it. Peter Jackson has shown it’s cool to be creative. And even on the
rugby field, emotion is okay.
We “should be a little bit pleased and iconically humble about what we have achieved.”
Our challenge now in the arts is to ask with whom and for whom are we seeking to be
interactively engaged and personalised, and why, Wainwright said in conclusion. Can we
have impact only on those who engage with us or should we try to interact with those who
have not yet experienced what we do? In a country that is undergoing turbo-charged
demographic change, are we in the arts ready?
Wainwright suggested that the arts community is not often enough reaching into segments of
the community not touched by the arts. While 72% of New Zealanders engage with the
statement that “the arts are for people like me”, 27% don’t. And only 40% of tickets
purchased are bought by males. The challenge for the arts is to ensure that excellence does
not translate into exclusivity or elitism (which goes right against the New Zealand egalitarian
grain). We must demonstrate that we’ve successfully opened doors to a wider public. We
should share, like John Maynard Keyes, in a goal of making the theatre, the concert hall and
the art gallery a living element in everyone’s lives.
The relative youth of most of our arts companies acts as a reminder of how young we are as
a nation. We owe it to our ancestors to acknowledge what they handed down to us, but we
must also, in the words of Michael King, “persist in building our own culture”.

DAY ONE: INTERACTIVITY
Keynote Address
Andy McKim, Artistic Director, Theatre Passe Muraille
Engaging Our Community: Building the bridge while walking on it
Theatre Passe Muraille (TPM) is the oldest theatre in Canada for the development of new
work. Andy McKim took over as artistic director in 2007 on the anniversary of its fourth
decade. He has revitalised the theatre in part because he focused on the question of how to
engage with the artists and the public in his community. In his address he spoke about
“history, values and acts of engagement”.
TPM was founded in an environment, fuelled by the centenary of the foundation of Canada,
that was asking what it meant to be Canadian. Toronto was a traditional, homogeneous
Anglo-Saxon city with little evidence of the many decades on immigration that had been
taking place. “We now live in an exciting intercultural mash-up” – the new face of Canada,
said McKim. TPM values this diverse audience – and with 550 new Canadian plays to its
credit, reflects many of the community’s stories in its repertoire.
It was not always such a rosy picture. Four years ago, TPM was almost bankrupt and had
lost its way. TPM’s founder, director and playwright Jim Garrard, had stressed the
importance of not only creating new works that reflected Canadian experience, but of
developing new models through which to engage with audiences. Garrard’s successor Paul
Thompson developed The Farm Show, now a staple of Canadian theatre. It epitomised the
ethos of TPM in which actors go into communities and meet an audience who don’t share
the same values. By interacting, each develops different viewpoints.
By 2007, TPM needed to reconnect with these founding principles. TPM is devoted to
encouraging meaningful engagement between its communities: artists, staff, audiences,
neighbourhoods and supporters. It holds complementary values: supporting and presenting
new artists and companies; collaborative and multidisciplinary work; and presenting
alternative and marginalised voices.
McKim recognised that TPM had become abstracted from it audience. “We were in essence
broadcasting to the audience through a megaphone. Either you liked what we did – or not.
But we didn’t seek out their opinion. We were the artistic decision-makers – why would we
need to directly involve the community in our activities?”
“There is no doubt we have undervalued our community’s ability to be creative, articulate
and passionate about the arts,” he said. “But people are engaging in the arts all the time,
without our guidance. If we give them more room to participate, we may see a rise in our
institutions’ relevance and attendance.”
TPM has now restructured so that its value-based, non-hierarchical organisational model
reflects the artistic process, and its vision and values. McKim has removed the silos “that
create job segregation” and re-designated staff roles so they are all part of a management
team moving TPM forward collaboratively. All are called associate producers. All accept
responsibility for the marketing, promotion and ongoing development of the theatre. In

eturn, TPM makes a commitment to their growth and development. For example, each has
the opportunity to produce one show each year, mentored by a manager.
Other changes to build bridges between the theatre and its communities included creating a
welcoming environment for the audience. Front of house staff are recognised as a critical
audience interface, and pre-theatre chats and entertainment were introduced. Next season
McKim, the general manager or one of the associate producers will attend each
performance, speak with the audience informally beforehand, and then again after the show.
“We want to make sure people feel valued and feel comfortable.”
TPM’s four-page vision and values document is given to all staff, and they are encouraged to
check any decisions they make against this. Not only did this have the effect of embedding
the values, it also resulted in staff members making more decisions on their own.
The diversity of shows presented represent TPM’s community and its values: independent
artists and companies; open and welcoming to any audience; emerging and marginal voices;
ethno-specific and intercultural work. In the 2010-2011 season the programme includes
puppets, emerging artists, plays based in the stories of real people, collaborative creations
and a multidisciplinary approach to theatre making. “They are shows that are open, available
and entertaining to any audience.” The diversity also makes audiences not often seen in
theatres to feel welcome.
McKim offered specific examples of how he is building the community engagement bridge
one step at a time:
• He has stopped broadcasting messages. Rather, he values trying to “engage one
person at a time”. For example, TPM realised it needed someone from the
neighbourhood on the Board – as local people didn’t know what went on inside the
building. McKim left a card with an invitation to call him in a letterbox in the
neighbourhood, and was rewarded with a (hesitant) phone call (after the caller had
checked out just who he was and whether the card was for real). That caller is now a
Board member and staunch advocate for TPM.
• He also operates the TPM “Pitch Blitz” – an open opportunity for artists to get five
minutes one-on-one with him, to audition, to pitch, simply to talk or to introduce
themselves. This has been a success on both sides. “We are more accessible to the
arts community and we have discovered a variety of interesting people and
companies who we are now engaged with us on a multitude of levels.”
• Engaging new audiences. For example, TPM decided to collaborate rather than
compete with other nearby theatres. They set up banners along the street that let
people know about all three theatres in the vicinity. And they organised the
“Bathurst Street Theatre Marathon”. Audiences attend a play at each of the theatres
in a matinee-to-evening series of productions, including supper at a local restaurant.
McKim attends the marathon and engages with new audiences attracted by the
event.
• Programme diversity to engage new communities. TPM is determined to be an arts
centre for the community and not just a subscription theatre. Diverse artists (improv
groups, emerging artists, a clown festival, dancers, musicians) are offered a home at
the theatre and time to perform there. Each new artist brings a new audience.
McKim believes that if the community sees the diversity of the artists performing

there, they will feel that TPM is a diverse and inclusive organisation where they are
welcome.
Other bridge building initiatives have included:
• A Naturists’ evening at the theatre – a performance where clothing was optional!
A huge hit – and a great publicity opportunity.
• Audience dramaturgy. The Buzz Festival is a new work and audience
development festival where the audience become participants in the play
development process. The audience is provided with background to each new
work and there is an interchange of views between the audience and artists both
during and after the play development sessions. With the artists always
ultimately in control of the creative product, but the audience engaged in a new
and intimate way, this has drawn positive reactions from both audience and
artists.
• Theatre Beyond Walls (a play on the company’s French name) is a pioneering
programme where stories from the community will be the starting point for the
development of new works. Artists will leave the building for a season to involve
local audiences in 12 locations around Toronto in the development and creation
of art works. Projects will include ”writers-out-of-residence” on the Toronto
Queen Street car; verbatim texts and interviews with taxi drivers as the starting
point for a theatre piece; and a play based on the homeless and mentally ill
people who will also take part in creating the work.
• The performance of Yichud (Seclusion), set in the orthodox Jewish community.
In all these projects there is a strong desire to develop community collaborations with nonartistic
organisations and communities. “We get to meet a community we don’t know,” said
McKim, “and they might get to meet a culture they don’t know.”
TPM is, through these and other initiatives (including social media to reach younger
audiences) moving to an approach based on dialogue and interactivity. It aims to encourage
people to create their own communities that reflect their own culture, and develop stories
that are meaningful to them.
“We hope this will be emblematic of a new way for a cultural institution and the city of
Toronto and the citizens to engage with one another to create something that is inspiring to
all of us and created by all of us.”
There is a big job ahead for us as cultural leaders, he adds. How can we be the purveyors of
the public’s ability to engage with art? TPM will continue to forge the path it has established,
buoyed by the response to the engagement activities undertaken to date, and those on
which they are about to embark.

Plenary Session and workshop
Remix the Orchestra: Barbara Glaser, CEO Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and DJ
Anonymouz
Barbara Glaser, chief executive of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Matt Faiumu
Salapu (Anonymouz) presented a unique orchestral/hip-hop crossover initiative that the APO
has developed with the Otara community over the past four years.
Remix is based on the belief that music has the power to change people’s lives, and fits with
the orchestra’s vision and mission – to enrich the lives of Aucklanders through music.
When the APO started Remix in 2008, it was very much a “toe in the water. We started not
knowing where it would end, and it involved an element of risk…. We are still working
through the larger vision of how it fits with our core practice.”
Remix is not consciously an audience development programme. Its value, said Glaser, is in
what is delivered to the community, not necessarily about whether the participants ever
come to a Mahler symphony.
Remix was not a case of the orchestra “plonking itself in Otara”. The Otara Music and Arts
Centre (OMAC) is a strong partner in the programme. Noma Sio from the orchestra, was
instrumental in developing the programme alongside Salapu, who has classical training
(piano) but has always been engaged with hip hop and other music genres.
Most participants have never been up close to an orchestra and are blown away by the
music, “– as are our musicians at the sophistication of hip hop music,” said Glaser.
The programme has two aspects: for gifted and talented musicians from the Otara
community; and for at-risk youth. They and a small group of orchestral musicians work
intensively over two separate one-week programmes to create new works that fuse hip hop
and orchestral genres and use elements of both. The week culminates on a performance for
family and friends, and participants take away a CD of the music created.
Is it successful? “Absolutely it is. We focus on how it stretches and develops individual
participants, and the way it engages people with the orchestra by the end of the week. It has
an impact on individuals and on the community we are working in. It has opened both sides
to new experiences,” said Glaser.
And while it has sometimes been a challenge for both, it generates “a massive amount” of
creativity in a very short time, and has resulted in much wider learning than simply music.
Social rewards from the programme have come through the personal development of
participants.
Matt Salapu spoke “from the Otara side”. Remix, he said, is a fusion of two different worlds –
while classical music is centuries old, hip hop is only 30 years old, and the musicians take
completely different approaches to the music. Hip hop is based on sampling – borrowing bits
you like from any music, while classical music tends to frown on such improvisation. Remix
fuses the spontaneity of hip hop with the discipline of classical. The programme is a form of
“time travel” – taking concepts and ideas from 300 years ago and making them relevant
today.

Participants step far outside their comfort zones – and to demonstrate this and the musical
outcomes of the Remix the Orchestra programme, four classical and four hip hop musicians
stepped onto the stage and presented the composition of one participant who had turned his
life around through the encounter with Remix. It was an inspiring and moving presentation
and performance, rewarded with a standing ovation.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS DAY ONE
We’re all in this together: Emma Bugden, The Dowse
This session revolved around discussion about curatorial and institutional responsibility to
audiences. Emma Bugden focused the discussion around two projects she had previously
curated. She also talked about her recent relocation to Lower Hutt, the move from Artspace
to The Dowse and the different communities and audiences that the different institutions
deliver to.
She noted that over the last 20 years, curators’/institutions’ work has somewhat moved away
from exhibitions driven by artefact/object towards situation/community-based curatorial
drives – often artist/community lead. This was interesting to consider in terms of whom the
‘power’ sits with and the responsibility of the curator to deliver to different community groups.
The first project discussed was an exhibition called Oblique, 1999, for which 30 New
Zealand and international artists travelled to Otira to make new work in a
residency/exhibition situation.
Interesting conflicts arose from this project, including the conflict between collaborating and
commissioning and the chasm between curatorial intention and the reality of how your
audience responds to a concept. In this project, the local community reacted quite differently
to how the curator had anticipated (the local community used the project and media to
promote their own concerns). This blurred the boundaries between the role of the artist,
participant and viewer and led the curator to consider the importance of local knowledge and
networks in engaging your audience.
The second example was BLOCK which took place at Artspace. This was a collaborative
exhibition between German artist Daniel Knorr and a group of prisoners from the New
Zealand corrections system.
The exhibition consisted of three parts – a film made in collaboration with the prisoners, a
series of paintings and drawings, and an installation. The project came about from the
curator’s interest in the systems that surround us in our community and also looked at the
role of art in prisons. The project was difficult emotionally and in terms of the logistics of
collaboration. Bugden noted that having a mediator/facilitator and support from the
corrections system in this project was integral to how the project was delivered and how it
was framed to the audience.
She noted that there was some concern from both the participants and the audience that the
exhibition would be a one-off event. While the expectation was that it was the
curator/institution’s responsibility to maintain an ongoing relationship with the prisoners, this
prompted discussion within the workshop as to whether it was responsible for a curator to

commit to a one-off community project without a long term strategy, a curator’s moral
commitment to communities, and how to continue to deliver to that community and work in
an ongoing way with your audience.
Using Audiences to Create New Work: James Ashcroft, Taki Rua Productions and
Andy McKim, Theatre Passe Muraille
Andy McKim presented a workshop that articulated Community Cultural Development
principles and offered some valuable reminders/pointers and examples for arts organisations
wanting to engage with their communities:
• Find as many ways as possible to involve people in the dramaturgy
The work is the product of our engagement. Example: Playwright in residence sat on
tramcar and talked with the diverse passengers/people to elicit stories and responses.
This was a process of engagement with people which was also a process of work
development
• Creation of new work is grounded in a particular community. Plays describe a city
and its social groups.
• Often playwrights and theatre companies have been telling stories of interest to each
other but not to the public.
• Theatre Passe Muraille is trying to tell stories, sometimes, of interest to those who
don’t come or aren’t coming to the theatre. Telling these stories is a way of being a
leader.
• One project started with a small number of stories told to the playwright by recent
migrants. They involved others, and the audience for these very specific stories was
nearly 2000 people. This sort of process is an avenue to transformative work.
• The process of engagement doesn’t mean authorship is handed over to the
community.
• McKim’s biggest challenge is “my peers and their concerns about doing things that
don’t have models”.
• Theatres/playwrights are leaders. We need to take up this responsibility and find
stories that people want to hear and give them a transformative experience.
• We’re not trying to force people into participation but to listen.
• McKim forcefully reinforced the point about programming the art not the venue.
• Old fashioned marketing is the same as broadcasting and is onedirectional. TPM’s
process of engagement is curating and networking with audiences.
If audiences don’t want to be passive consumers, how radically do we need to rethink
our organisations? Panel Discussion, chaired by Andrew McIntyre

Panellists: Aidan Lang, NBR New Zealand Opera – Carla Theunnisen, Q Theatre – James
McCarthy, Te Tuhi Arts Centre – John Smythe, Theatreview
With a question as long as that, this discussion was bound to throw up conflicting ideas. The
following is a summary of panellists’ and audience thoughts:
• What level of passivity are we talking about? Some art forms don’t readily lend
themselves to moving beyond the proscenium arch in performance – but does that
mean audiences are passive? They have taken a very active step in purchasing
tickets. Some forms of theatre are very [overtly] interactive – e.g. pantomime,
comedy.
• Even in theatres where actors/musicians are on stage, the audience have always
contributed – theatres are not darkened temples. Being present with actors and
musicians creating a performance is not a passive experience – it has an
extraordinary effect on people, far removed from hearing the same work on a CD.
• Theatres will not be as relevant in the future as they are now. Technology is causing
massive shifts in the way people partake in art. Making art is now more interactive
and one-to-one. Companies will have a digital producer as well as a live one.
• Often the people having the most fun in a theatre are the performers. New styles of
performance can be emotive and powerful and put the audience in the performer’s
seat. It’s difficult to be bored if you are interactively engaged.
• It’s only in the 20 th century that we’ve put the “fourth wall” in performance venues and
audiences have become passive absorbers of the performing arts.
• “I don’t believe that sitting in a dark auditorium is passive if you are empathising,
having thoughts, engaging with concepts of moral dilemma.” (John Smythe)
• There is still room for the playwright-initiated work creatively developed by other
people – that’s where the deep thinking happens. Tricky novelties will not engage
audiences.
• A youth audience needs stimulus in another way. This is a valid audience and should
be provided for.
• The shared theatrical experience generates a magical bond between audience and
performers. And the tone of the performance can be completely changed according
to the reaction of the audience.
• Audience engagement doesn’t have to mean interactivity or co-creation. Immersion
in an art experience can be still (as in a gallery) but not passive because your head is
filled with ideas and meanings – one is taken to another time and place.
• Social media is one aspect of using the internet to communicate about art. The
internet is also used to engage people in making art. The challenge for arts
organisations to think about is: Does engaging people interactively become an end in
itself? How does it connect with your core business? Or are you seriously thinking of
changing your practice?
• Changing technologies have completely changed people’s expectations of how
interpretation should be provided in galleries. They want to experience exhibitions.
There is an assumption that all the “stuff” to read is online – they expect to go online
before and after every visit.
• Challenge: Are audience expectations (of digital engagement) going to race ahead of
our staff structures?

• When you get big changes (e.g. growth of the digital world) there are always
doomsayers. But DVDs haven’t killed cinema, and ticket sales for live music events
are double what they were 10 years ago. We are entering a hugely exciting era with
more tools to play with and new ways to engage people. Keep calm and carry on!
Plenary Session
Making It Personal: The Air New Zealand Brand – weird, wacky or inspired? Rob Fyfe,
CEO, Air New Zealand.
Rob Fyfe stressed the importance of defining and projecting the personality of your
organisation in a way that engages your key audiences.
The Air New Zealand personality is projected and used very strategically. “In a world where
we could be a small airline at the edge of the world, we set out to attract attention and be a
little different.”
In a world where most competitors had huge budgets – and did big budget television ads
that did very little to differentiate themselves from competitors, the challenge was not only in
the disparity between the Air New Zealand budget and that of the big players, but how to
make Air New Zealand stand out. The challenge is how to cut through the clutter, Fyfe
noted – adding that he’s not a big consumer of the arts, “because messages don’t get
through to me”.
Of course Air New Zealand wants to be respected in the industry. This does not preclude
having a personality, said Fyfe. Given that over 70% of Air New Zealand’s passengers are
international holiday makers, the company’s personality was developed to distil and
epitomise what visitors took away from the New Zealand travel experience: the very “New
Zealandness” of its people. Forget the clean green rivers and forests, bungy jumping and
mountain climbing that brought them here. What visitors took away was the welcoming,
authentic, generous and can-do personality of the people they met.
The Air New Zealand personality was defined around those four characteristics. The next
challenge was to ensure that the character traits became a vision and way of acting among
all Air New Zealand staff, recognising that every consumer touchpoint is critical in building
the brand.
Rather than have management preach a vision, mission and values, staff were invited to
share stories that bring these personality traits to life. Staff not only relate to the stories,
noted Fyfe, but also to how they can be actors and participants in building the brand.
Stories are shared in lots of ways; Fyfe’s regular e-newsletter to staff is just one. He also
works in the business once a month as do all his senior management team. And once a
month a staff member comes in from wherever they are normally based to work with him.
Then there are events to create stories around: the pink flight to the Sydney Mardi Gras,
Matariki celebrations in the LA terminal – and members of the senior management team
doing a turn as a rock band.

Fyfe personally responds in character to the emails he receives – and has no hesitation in
sharing some of these with staff. Fyfe does not hand out the standard corporate response;
he’s much more likely to respond in kind, to counter a challenge with a counter challenge –
which invariably ends up with the complainant on side.
And of course there are the high profile, love or loathed, inflight safety videos. The route to
cut-through by Air New Zealand has not been in the videos themselves but in the
extraordinary noise they have generated on social media platforms. Millions of people have
seen Air New Zealand online, on American talk shows, and current affairs programmes –
simply because of the attention some of those in-flight videos have generated. With scarcely
an ad in sight.
“The challenge for us is not to reach New Zealand audiences but to reach international
audiences. Our entire budget wouldn’t buy a single [ad] slot at the baseball.” The cut-through
of the body-painting campaign and video has generated coverage that ad budgets can’t buy
(The weird and unusual gets noticed internationally and spreads virally online).
Does anyone care? Oh yes. Air New Zealand was voted global airline of the year in 2010 –
“and that is important to us because it helps our people see that what they do really matters”.
And in 2008/09, during the worst of the global recession, Air New Zealand was the best
performing global airline.
Infusing a personality through everything we do has been really hard for us, Fyfe
commented wryly. People are coming to work trying to figure out how to create these
experiences, rather than just coming to work.
And what does all this mean to the arts?
• Intimacy (one-on-one engagement) is essential. “You need all your staff doing this
stuff.”
• Continuous engagement creates stickiness – people who engage with you.
• The value of giving customers access; a lot of ideas Air New Zealand implements
comes from their customers.
• The price you pay is time commitment.
• Tell stories. These enable you to connect and engage with people.
Fyfe left the audience with a challenge. “Something has to capture my imagination to
encourage me to carve out the time [for the arts]. You might not want me as a customer, but
if you do, work out what I might want to attend rather than what you want to present”. You
need to deliver a product the audience wants.
DAY TWO: PERSONALISATION
Introduction: Helen Bartle, Creative New Zealand
If arts organisations want audiences to engage with them, they need to be able to do so on
their own terms. One size does not fit all. The model in the conference reader shows there
are three different functions that can be personalised at different levels to meet audience
needs:

• Information (inroads to understanding)
• Communication
• Distribution (where and how the work is experienced)
Personalisation is not just for individuals, but also for specific communities and groups. And
you need to do it in a way that suits your arts organsiation.
A short video discussed some of the ways to embrace personalisation:
• Pre-performance talks
• Open days
• Showing scene changes
• Friends’ night – go backstage and get on the set; meet the actors
• Online communication
• Workshops
“Behind the scenes” stories and content give the audience a stake in what’s going on and
pride of ownership in “their” company. People, especially young people, are sensitive to
being marketed to. The key is to be personable and generate authentic word of mouth. An
engaged online community will tell unique stories and become our champions.
Keynote Address & workshop session
Media, Marketing and Art: 3 ways to skin a cat (or engage an audience) / Personalising
your web experience
Victor Samra, Digital Marketing Manager, MoMA New York
MoMA is a privately owned contemporary art institution. It is actively engaged in digital
marketing and uses a range of online tools, including: e-news, online banners, search
engine optimisation (seo), seo marketing, web analytics, and digital promotions.
However social media is relatively recent. As in many organisations, there was initial
hesitancy about jumping onto Facebook and using other social media tools. They started
slowly (with You Tube and three videos) and learned as they went, said Samra. Any early
reservations are now overcome. “Social media is a great way to put out all the things we
couldn’t physically share” and to engage a far wider audience than will ever actually visit.
Referring to Josh Bernoff’s book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social
Technologies, Samra points out that social media can be used for
• listening (monitoring online conversations)
• talking (engaging with visitors and others)
• energising (creating content users can share, to create word of mouth)
• supporting (enabling your audience to communicate with each other and help each
other)
• embracing (using audience ideas to improve your services). “You can put a question
out on Twitter and Facebook and get ideas back.”
MoMA now uses a range of social media/online tools:

• Flickr: A lot of people had put up photos of their visit online. MoMA realised that
many of these photos presented the visitors’ viewpoint and had more personality
than the traditional art museum shots. It now invites visitors to a Flickr group where
they can post photos, which can also be used by MoMA on its own website or in
other contexts – always with the photographer’s permission.
• You Tube: MoMA now has 306 videos on its You Tube site MoMAvideos. You Tube
is the second most searched site outside Google, and people can take the videos
you post and put them on blogs. Analytics enable you to know who is watching your
video, as well as where, when and what they are watching.
• 30 second videos: MoMA invited members and staff to create 30 second videos to
express how they felt about MoMA and what they do there. The goal was to show the
MoMA personality, the characters of staff, and members, and a “behind the scenes”
perspective. Responses ranged from a wordless cartwheeling through the galleries,
to a staff member talking to camera; from one staff member’s four-year-old's
perspective to one of the operations team demonstrating how they turn on the lights
at MoMA using a cardboard sword and waving at the lights whilst skipping through
the gallery rooms.
• Marina Abramovich exhibition”: This exhibition, titled The Artist is Present, had
theartist herself sitting in the atrium and locking eyes with anyone prepared to sit
opposite her. MoMA decided to test the waters with a live video feed of her sitting
there. Who would want to watch? Turns out that hundreds of thousands did – MoMA
had to put a 2 minute limit on how long anyone could watch to avoid completely
bringing down the organisation’s servers. They also took a portrait photo of everyone
who sat opposite her and put those up on Flickr. People took that content and made
their own online content with it; they created games around identifying celebrities or
friends; one person found all the photos of people crying and called the subsequent
online “exhibition” ‘MoMA made me cry’. And someone even tweeted as if they were
Marina Abramovich’s chair.
• Andy Warhol screen tests: These were screened in one of the MoMA galleries, and
people were invited to create their own 90second ‘screen test’ videos and upload
them to Flickr. Over 680 videos were submitted.
• I went to MoMA and…: Less technical, but with social media offshoots, this
campaign invited people to complete the sentence, expressing their thoughts on their
visit, and post it on a wall in the gallery. More than 2000 of the over 7000
submissions have already been put on the MoMA website and another 2000 are
about to be added. MoMA also used the responses in poster, billboard and banner
campaigns over the following summer, as well as including some as blog content–
and learned a lot about the MoMA experience for visitors. The initiative is ongoing
and MoMA is about to introduce scanners so visitors can scan their response and
make it immediately shareable online.
• iTune U: Audio guides are posted so people can load them onto their own iPods.
• Facebook: MoMA puts as much as it can on its site: upcoming and current
exhibitions, maps, and other info. People “appreciate it when we post non-MoMA
content. They trust that we are not trying to sell stuff constantly.” Again, monitoring
tools tell MoMA what’s working and what isn’t.
• Twitter: Some of the content put on Facebook also goes on Twitter. It’s also a way
people can contact MoMA directly. Samra follows Twitter conversations and

coverage closely, segmenting it in to different audiences: people MoMA follows; other
art museums and arts bloggers; any mentions of MoMA; direct messages; and
various search terms.
• Foursquare: A location-based app which signals your location and that offers tips
when people log in.
Samra says MoMA is not alone in engaging visitors with social media. Other art
museums (Brooklyn, Metropolitan Museum New York, V&A in London) are also actively
engaging audiences through various online tools. They offer great avenues into
participation and co-creation:
• Create meaningful connections and relationship between the audience and the
organsiation.
• Go beyond one-way communication
• Build a feeling of belongingness, openness and inclusion
• Create content that users want to share
• Produce creative with a fresh perspective
• Gain insight into the audience
Whether there has been a related increase in attendances is harder to determine. But the
fact remains that use of digital technologies is growing. More of MoMA’s visitors read the
New York Times online than in hard copy; more people are using Facebook than ever. And
online media allow MoMA to reach out to international audiences, who may never visit, but
who are actively engaged online. “We do have a global brand. [Social media] are a way for
us to reach out to people who will never visit.”
MoMA dedicates about 20-25% of its marketing budget to online, and social media are part
of marketing campaigns from the beginning. More of the costs are technical and camera
equipment than production costs. Plus, of course, the time required. Through active
measuring and monitoring MoMA learns about what shows people are visiting and what
content is most engaging. For example, that people were going to the MoMA site for content
other than directly about MoMA – “they trust us for information”.
MoMA is careful not to use social media to sell (“People trust us not to”) so a separate
Facebook page will be established for the institution’s online merchandise sales. MoMA also
has a separate Facebook page, Twitter account and e-news for MoMA Teens; a separate
Facebook page for MoMA Education and a Twitter account for 20s-30s.
In his workshop session Samra advised arts organisations intending to use social media to
ask a series of critical questions:
• What are your goals?
• How will you measure success?
• Who are your audience and what are they passionate about? What would they find
interesting? What would get them to interact with you online?
• What content do you have that you can share online?
• What voice would you use? Would this voice encourage people to interact? Find your
voice and be human.
• How will you handle criticism and transparency?

• Would you need to get permission? Would you need to advocate internally to get
buy-in?
• Who would manage social media in your organisation? Would oversight dull the
effects of social media?
• Do you have the time and proper resources?
• Do communities like yours already exist? How can you reach out to these?
• How would listening help your organisation? What would you ask the audience?
Optimise your online audience engagement –
Vicki Allpress-Hill, The Audience Connection
By engaging audiences online, arts companies gain the means to build closer and stronger
relationships with their audiences and stakeholders. By following a few simple guiding
principles, organisations can optimise their effectiveness online.
There are four key ways to engage an audience online:
1. Facilitate an initial connection
2. Encourage and enable a conversation to start
3. Enhance their understanding and enjoyment
4. Encourage the leap to becoming a customer
Vicki had 17 tips for arts organisations to optimise their online presence. She noted that
trying to do everything might be too much, so choosing the things that could be
accomplished or would have the single biggest effect would make adopting world best
practices more achievable.
17 tips for optimising the presence of your organisation online:
1. Which questions are you the answer to? Think about how people would search for your
organisation online and make sure you’re the answer to their search – your answers/content
needs to be relevant to your users’ questions, not simply what you want to tell the world
about yourself.
2. Increase the chances of people finding you via searches by ensuring the most commonly
searched for terms connected with your website’s header.
3. Proactively target very specific segments. Facebook allows you to determine very specific
demographic profiles and things that people link to or talk about in their news feeds. By
targeting those people you ensure your advert increases in relevance.
4. Create clear pathways on your website. Ensure the navigation on your website is simple
and relates to what people would want and expect to find when they reach your site.
Remember fewer than than 50% of people come to your site via your homepage, so ensure
that no matter where people are on your site, they can find their way around without getting
confused.
5. Clearly articulate your sign-up benefits. If you want people to sign up to emails, make sure
people know why they would and what they can expect to get from you via email in the
future.

6. Invite people to sign up for email communications at every entry point. Keeping your signup
button in a consistent and highly visible place is really important.
7. Remove any barriers to sign-up. Unless you really, really, need something more than a
name, surname and email address, avoid asking for more details than that at the initial signup.
8. When people talk to you via social media platforms, respond personally. And promptly.
9. Anticipate what they need to know and make sure your website provides the information
people are after, quickly and easily.
10. Invite people to participate in the life of your organisation. Make your organisation
approachable and accessible.
11. Provide personal and interesting insights into your work.
12. Facilitate connections between your organisation and your audiences, and between your
audiences.
13. Show them what their peers think – use lots of personal endorsements and testimonials
from real people.
14. Give people the tools to invite others to attend your organsiation’s work. This can be as
simple as open Facebook event pages.
15. Share ownership. Getting others involved immediately means they will sell the idea for
you to their friends and networks.
16. Create buzz and calls to action. Interesting and humorous You Tube videos created by
you or your users will help to break down barriers to you and show another side of your
organisation which could appeal to people and encourage them to spread the word.
17. Encourage peer review – invite people to Tweet about their experiences.
Tweeting for the fabulous
Vaughn Davis, The Goat Farm
Vaughn Davis’ presentation was not just about Twitter; it was a critical and practical guide to
using social media effectively. He started by dispelling some common social media myths:
• Facebook is NOT the biggest social media network in New Zealand though it does
have 2 million users.
• TradeMe has MORE members than Facebook (2.5 million) in New Zealand and the
forum pages on TradeMe receive more than 750,000 posts per day.
• Google is not the ONLY search engine – but organisations spend disproportionate
amounts of time/resource on optimising their Google search profile.
• YouTube is the second most widely used search engine after Google... But very few
organisations spend any time or resources optimising their searches on YouTube.
• Twitter does NOT represent the views of the public, just the views of 300,000 or so
Twits in New Zealand (and considerably more worldwide).

• Using social media to market directly is not welcomed by most users, who consider
direct marketing in their online communities as SPAM.
• Social media is not a silver bullet to unlock new young audiences (the average age of
a Facebook user worldwide is now over 50 years old).
Why use social media? Because social media is already using you: audiences are already
talking about you. It would be perilous not to join the conversation and engage with those
audiences. But remember, on social networks brands are no different to people – your
opinion on Facebook or Twitter is worth no more or less than those of the users.
Davis’ summary slide suggests five ways to succeed with social media:
The Dos:
• Be useful – social media are a great resource; share your expertise and knowledge
• Be interesting – most people don’t care what you ate for breakfast
• Be honest – fibbers never prosper
• Have a social media policy – but not one that stifles your staff
• Post regularly – it is hard to engage in a conversation with someone who isn’t really
paying attention
• Make new connections and have great content
The Don’ts:
• Don’t spam – even your friends get annoying if they constantly bug you to buy
something – Vaughn expertly demonstrated how annoying spam can be by throwing
tennis balls (gently) at the back of a willing participant’s head and yelling “Buy tickets
to my show!”
• Don’t fib – you’ll be found out very quickly!
• Don’t take everything to heart – especially the things Twits say on Twitter. They don’t
represent your entire audience

Some Social Media facts
• Facebook
o 2 million users in NZ
o Middle NZ demographic
o Highly social, not highly professional
o Semi-private – users can make their own pages/content private making it:
hard to hear for organisations, feature-rich (applications, games, etc),
content-rich (videos, photos, blogs, etc)
• Linkedin
o 300,000 users in NZ
o Professional rather than social
o Groups (topical discussions, forums, etc)
o Job seekers
o Employers
• Twitter
o 200,000 users in NZ
o Connected
o Influential
o Lippy – uncensored, live
conversation
o Listened to – easy to
access by organisations,
open and searchable
• YouTube
o ? Users
o Bandwidth – HD movies unpopular with users as they chew up valuable
bandwidth
o Dialogue
• Blogger
o No barriers
o Search friendly
o Dialogue – measure the success of your post not by pithy copy but by the
richness of the commentary underneath
• TradeMe
o 2.5 million users in NZ
o Middle NZ demographic
o Can see in – the forums are open and searchable
o Can sell – auctions
o Can’t market directly to users
Davis wrapped up the session by giving examples of New Zealand arts organisations and
practitioners doing good work with social media - Auckland Theatre Company, Auckland Art
Gallery, Auckland Museum, Rhys Darby, Royal New Zealand Ballet – and there are many
more.
Growing Donor Relationships – It’s Personal
Janet Colson, Colson Creative

“Fundraising in tough economic times requires organisations to reinvent themselves and to
be creative. Above all it’s an ongoing process that is all about the nurturing and maintenance
of relationships face-to-face”. Janet Colson
Colson highlighted a case study in the success factors of the donor relationships achieved
by Sadler Wells. Key points were:
• Had a clear vision and a strategy for the fundraising project.
• Face to face communications were critically important despite growth in virtual and
social media communications.
• Opportunities were created from listening to audiences and learning something from
what they had to say, and identifying audience members as potential donors.
• Involving themselves with and continuing to communicate with donors ensured that
they carried on giving.
• Defined their brand through collaboration and co-creation, cross cuts, cross venue,
cross culture and cross audience.
• Inviting donors to be part of the process thereby building core support from
individuals and creating feelings of ownership. This helps build relationships so that
the basis is there when you come to ask them to be a donor.
• Built new personalities that people want to be friends with.
What do donors look for?
• Same as audiences, but in close up.
• A compelling vision for the work.
• Recognition that their support will make a difference or have a transformative quality.
Having access (real or virtual) to the artist and/or the work/cause you are asking
donors to support can be a great help.
• Organisations that understand how to nurture and maintain good relationships. Make
this a priority and resource accordingly. An investment in additional resources to do
this could lead to dollars raised through donors.
Potential donors could be anyone who walks through the door, or may be found from within
existing databases, or by thinking outside of the box. Consider donors that may bring
something new to the market, have the ability to transform. Look for partners and cocreators
that could help to do things in a more interesting way.
Hints for growing donor relationships
• Inspire them with your vision; have a plan they can trust.
• Think of your donors and sponsors as essential and draw them in.
• Create social situations in which donors can meet like-minded people.
• Reconsider your boundary issues and let your donors ‘have a go’ at the art form.
• Hold a focus group for invited audience members.
• Get on with the ask! Do your research and schedule a meeting.
• Use your artists.
• Show donors how they can make a difference; be transparent and positive about
your financial goals.
• Demonstrate where their gift will fit into a viable financial plan.

• Encourage consortia for giving. Being part of a group can be more fun at first than
going it alone.
• Remember sponsors have employees. They are individual audience members and
the arts can have a transformative effect for them.
• Innovate with your corporate sponsors. Work with them to keep the relationship
relevant and exciting.
• Raising money needs resourcing; plan for this, convince your board.
What do your colours say about you? Culture segments
Andrew McIntyre, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre
Much of the targeting done by arts organisations, claimed McIntyre, has been flawed. It
tends to have been behavioural targeting (i.e., what shows have patrons attended in the
past). But you can’t use past behaviour as a predictor of future attendance. And if you only
target people who have attended in the past, that’s no way to develop your audience.
Morris Hargreaves McIntyre therefore worked to find a “more intelligent” way to segment the
population. They have developed a set of research questions that go to the heart of an
individual’s belief systems about the arts – what they believe the arts can do for them, and
how people relate to the arts. The result: a segmentation of eight attitudinal groups, each
overlaid with behavioural and demographic profiles.
“We take an optimistic view,” said McIntyre. “Everyone wants culture in their lives but for
different reasons and at different levels”. The new segmentation therefore abandons
pejorative attitudinal groupings (“couch potatoes”, “culture vultures”, “flirters”, “outsiders”)
and uses a single word descriptor to reflect the value culture has for each segment and how
its members use culture. These eight segments are all interested in the arts – but in different
ways.
The original research used hundreds of questions. The questions have now been refined
down to just three which arts companies can either send out as a mini-survey to their
database, or incorporate into the purchase process.
The value of the segments is that companies can start using different language and different
motivators to attract people from each of these segments to exhibitions or performances.
The eight segments are:
• Enrichment (mature, traditional, value heritage, nostalgia)
• Entertainment (popularist, mainstream, looking for leisure activities)
• Expression (social connectors, confident, live life to the full, don’t like exclusivity or
elitism, critical to arts organisations)
• Perspective (can be strong arts attenders, but are difficult to influence as they are
content with their life as it is, self-fulfilled, settled and focused)
• Stimulation (active, experimental, always looking for what’s new, find brochures
boring, need personal contact and stiumulation)

• Affirmation (seek self-improvement, family oriented, quality time, see arts as
enriching)
• Release (busy, ambitious, time poor and need arts activities to be worth the time they
put into them, online important)
• Essence (hard-core arts attenders, discerning, independent, spontaneous).
Most arts marketing material is written for Essence people – and is a waste of money,
said McIntyre, as they’ll come anyway. If you want to develop new audiences, the real
challenge is to reframe promotional material to reach out to other segments.
Research will be undertaken in New Zealand to refine the segments in a local context and
results will be released as Audience Atlas New Zealand in the next New Zealanders and the
Arts: Attitudes Attendance and Participation study by Creative New Zealand in 2012.
Hidden City Maps: Plenary Session and Performance
Ludicity
“Hidden City Maps is a contemporary New Zealand art work”, explained Robin Kerr of
Ludicity, “which aims to cross the boundary that separates the audience from the
experience, and to empower the participant to be as much a generator of the art as a
participant”.
With Hidden City Maps, Ludicity aims to provide others with an artistic experience they
themselves would like to experience. Kerr described the 21 st century as a place where we
live increasingly frantic lives, and our spare moments are filled with technology, which keeps
us both engaged and disengaged from the world around us.
Instead of trying to shock the audience, or wake them up, Hidden City Maps aims to slow
them down, with a gentle and poetic experience that gives people back the space to be
themselves. Not a sightseeing tour, but very clearly an art work, Hidden City Maps provokes
the participant into experiencing a familiar environment in a different way. It allows people to
acknowledge what the place means to them and to “interact with marginal corners of the
city”.
It subverts accepted behaviours expected in the city, and places the “fantastical, personal
and remembered on a par”. It allows people who are familiar with the city to get “lost” in it.
The 3-D montage of layered sounds taken from the city environment and listened to via
headphones, is intended, according to Kerr, to invoke a heightened perception of public
space. Overall, in the specifics of the instructions given by the narrator, the work is designed
to cause the participant to focus in different ways on the city; to focus away from the external
and inwards to themselves. The responses are shaped by the participant; the objects
provided as part of the experience act as catalysts to perform an increasingly complex set of
actions.
A theatre or gallery tries to dress itself to transport the audience to other places and times.
“We aren’t anchored in a building,” said Kerr. The audience therefore achieves a sense of

elonging and ownership in the work. In fact, he adds, they are not an audience, because
their actions bring the work to life.
All delegates were encouraged to take part in this interactive art work, presented as a “selfguided
walking tour” that drew almost as many responses as there were delegates who took
part.
In essence, it involves a city walk, experiencing it while listening to the city sound-scape. A
bag of envelopes was supplied, to be opened on instruction from the narrator. Presented as
interactive, as the participants respond to the narrator at stages on the walk, some
participants found it “isolating” and “disconcerting” in the context of a conference that
otherwise offered networking and direct learning experiences. But perhaps that makes a
point about the disruptive nature of arts experiences.
The concept is in its infancy, but has potential to tour to festivals and other cities as it is
simple, non-site specific and relatively cheap. It is not time-specific and does not have to be
experienced with others. Downloads via the internet could make it accessible for anyone to
undertake the experience.
The five envelopes, to be opened at points in the narration, contained:
1. A lens, with a prompt to examine the detail of the spot in which the participant found
herself.
2. Chalk, with an invitation to write something prompted by a memory from the location.
Most participants felt conspicuous and uncomfortable doing this in the city.
3. Red stones, to create a trail for someone else to follow.
4. Feathers, with an instruction to climb to a high spot and let them fly. There were, of
course, not always convenient high spots, though some intrepid participants found
them. For others, “it felt like littering”.
5. A red ribbon, to tie somewhere “near the water”.
The experience was partway between an art work and a guided walk, and for many
participants sat uncomfortably between the two. However, as more than one participant
noted, the meditative nature of this art work does force the participant to slow down and
consider.
Delegate list below.

Name Job Title Organisation
Jeremy Bell Manager Academy of Performing Arts, University of Waikato
Hori Ahipene
Actor/Film Director
Rob Fyfe CEO Air New Zealand
Matthew Faiumu Salapu Producer/DJ Anonymouz Works/APO Remix
Di Yarrall General Manager, Community Relations Art Gallery of Western Australia
Amberleigh Carson Administrator Artists Alliance
Maggie Gresson Executive Director Artists Alliance
Richard Benge Executive Director Arts Access Aotearoa
Pippa Sanderson Community Development Adviser and Events Coordinator Arts Access Aotearoa
Richard Arlidge Trustee Arts on Tour New Zealand
Annie Edmond Trustee Arts on Tour New Zealand
Steve Lowndes Chair Arts on Tour New Zealand
Andy Gowland-Douglass Chief Executive Arts Waikato
Desiree Ryan Arts Adviser Arts Waikato
Annie Bradley Communications Manager Artspace Aotearoa
Anna Gardner Gallery Administrator Artspace Aotearoa
Caterina Riva Director Artspace Aotearoa
Roger Farr Manager Ashburton Trust Event Centre
Moss Patterson Chief Executive/Artistic Director Atamira Dance Collective
Jennifer Buckley Director Auckland Art Fair
Amy Cooper Online Communications Coordinator Auckland Art Gallery
Mary Kisler Senior Curator, Mackelvie Collection Auckland Art Gallery
Mark Burlace Associate Director Auckland Arts Festival
David Inns CEO Auckland Arts Festival
Shona Roberts Business & Finance Manager Auckland Arts Festival
Carla van Zon Artistic Director Auckland Arts Festival
Mary Ama Pacific Arts Advocate Auckland City Council
Anna Fomison Events Organiser Auckland City Council
Julie Nash Community Arts Coordinator Auckland City Council
Kate Paterson Manager Arts & Culture Central Auckland City Council
Barbara Procter Arts Funding Adviser Auckland City Council
Gail Richards Manager, Arts Development Auckland City Council
Ema Tavola Pacific Arts Coordinator, Arts & Culture South Auckland City Council
Jo Brehaut Manager Visitor & Market Research Auckland War Memorial Museum
Amanda White Exhibitions Manager Auckland War Memorial Museum
Barbara Glaser Chief Executive Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Lee Martelli Education Manager Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Ronan Tighe Manager of Artistic Planning Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Mel Sepping Festival Administrator Auckland Readers & Writers Festival
Jill Rawnsley Artistic Director Auckland Readers & Writers Festival
Michael Adams Marketing and Communications Manager Auckland Theatre Company
Lynne Cardy Creative Development & Education Manager Auckland Theatre Company
Lester McGrath General Manager Auckland Theatre Company
Eric Ngan Manager Event Production Auckland Tourism Events & Economic Development
Martyn Wood Programme Manager BATS Theatre
Helen Langford Administrater Black Grace Trust
Sam Sefuiva Board Member Black Grace Trust
Andrew Scott Chief Executive Bruce Mason Centre
Stephen Blackburn Creative Producer Capital E – National Theatre for Children
Ali Jamieson Marketing Manager Capital E – National Theatre for Children
Stuart Grant Director Capital E Festival
Julie Sperring Executive Director Centre for New Zealand Music (SOUNZ)
Kate Louise Elliott Artistic Director Centrepoint Theatre
Euan Murdoch Chief Executive Chamber Music New Zealand
Anna Sedcole Artist Development Manager Chamber Music New Zealand
Roger Lloyd Chief Executive Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust
Blair Jackson Deputy Director Christchurch Art Gallery
Neil Semple Projects Manager Christchurch Art Gallery
Philip Tremewan Director Christchurch Arts Festival
Steph Walker General Manager Christchurch Arts Festival
Marlene LeCren Arts Advisor Christchurch City Council
James Caygill Chief Executive Christchurch Symphony Orchestra
Gretchen La Roche Manager, Artistic Planning Christchurch Symphony Orchestra
Marianne Hargreaves Festival Director Christchurch Writers Festival
Cara Hill Audience Development Director Circa Theatre/TACT
Ross Jolly Coordinator Circa Theatre/TACT
Bridget Kidd Marketing Manager Circa Theatre/TACT
Kate Montgomery Senior Curator City Gallery Wellington
Janet Colson Strategic Fundraising Consultant Colson Creative
Naomi McCleary Trustee Corban Estate Arts Centre
Leah Mulgrew Marketing Coordinator Corban Estate Arts Centre
Martin Sutcliffe Director Corban Estate Arts Centre
Adrienne Clothier Arts Advisor Creative Hamilton
Tracey Wood Arts Manager Creative Hamilton
Matt Allen Digital & Visual Media Adviser Creative New Zealand
Helen Bartle Senior Adviser, Audience Development Creative New Zealand
Raewyn Bright Senior Organisations Adviser Creative New Zealand
Rose Campbell Manager Arts & Quick Response Grants Creative New Zealand
Cath Cardiff Senior Manager, Arts Policy, Capability & International Creative New Zealand
Alastair Carruthers Chair Arts Council Creative New Zealand

Name Job Title Organisation
Jude Chambers Senior Programme Adviser Creative New Zealand
Jane Clarke Senior Manager Arts Funding Creative New Zealand
Jooles Clements Senior Adviser, Audience Development Creative New Zealand
Michael Daly Organisations Adviser Creative New Zealand
Mark da Vanzo Senior Organisations Adviser Creative New Zealand
Catriona Ferguson Programme Adviser Creative New Zealand
Amanda Humphreys Communications Assistant Creative New Zealand
Helen Isbister Communications Manager Creative New Zealand
Briar Monro Senior Programme Adviser Creative New Zealand
Susan Nelson Conference Coordinator Creative New Zealand
Nonnita Rees Manager, Policy Development Creative New Zealand
Anne Rush Arts Council & Arts Board Member Creative New Zealand
Haniko Te Kurapa Manager Maori Arts Programmes Creative New Zealand
Stephen Wainwright CEO Creative New Zealand
Emma Ward Programme Adviser Creative New Zealand
Sarah Boon Regional Arts Development Manager Creative Northland (CHART)
Trish Clarke Arts Administrator Creative Northland (CHART)
Sandy Gray Board Member Dance and Physical Theatre Trust
Adam Hayward Artistic Director Dance and Physical Theatre Trust - Body Festival
Linda Lim Communications Manager DANZ Aotearoa New Zealand
Susan Jordan Regional Manager DANZ Tamaki
Aaron Alexander Manager, Marketing & Communications Downstage Theatre
Hilary Beaton Director/CEO Downstage Theatre
Angela Green Associate Producer, Programming Downstage Theatre
Elizabeth Caldwell Director Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Kirstie Baxter Administration Manager Footnote Dance Company
Roger Marwick Board Member Footnote Dance Company
Lara Macgregor Artistic Director Fortune Theatre
Jeremy Smith General Manager Fortune Theatre
George Parker Performer/Project Manager Free Theatre/Arts Voice Christchurch
Felicity Connell Manager Communication and Experience Govett-Brewster Art Gallery
Meredith Robertshawe Acting Assistant Curator Govett-Brewster Art Gallery
Amanda Watson Strategic Advisor (Arts & Culture) Hamilton City Council
Megan Lyon Business Development Manager Hamilton City Theatres
Pam Joyce Marketing Team Leader Hawke's Bay Museum & Art Gallery
Eloise Taylor Public Programmes Team Leader Hawke's Bay Museum & Art Gallery
Megan Peacock Coyle Arts Programming Manager Hawke's Bay Opera House
Louise Gallagher Producer Indian Ink Theatre Company
Justin Lewis Director Indian Ink Theatre Company
Tama Huata CEO Kahurangi Maori Dance Trust
Tihau David Bishop Kaiārahi Korou Productions
Terri Ripeka Crawford Director Korou Productions
Lesley Smith Gallery Manager Lopdell House
Jon Coddington Design Assistant LudiCity
Robin Kerr Producer LudiCity
Paul Minifie Director Maidment Theatre
Naomi Singer Manager Mangere Arts Centre
James Pinker Visual Arts Manager Mangere Arts Centre Nga Tohu o Uenuku
Andrew Kincaid Treasurer Manukau Symphony Orchestra
Pauline Logger Funding & Marketing Coordinator Manukau Symphony Orchestra
Paul Towson Chief Executive Marlborough Civic Theatre
Maree Brown Manager Arts Sector Ministry for Culture & Heritage
Angela Henderson Agency Adviser, Arts Sector Ministry for Culture & Heritage
Vivien Meek Senior Adviser, Arts Sector Ministry for Culture & Heritage
Jeremy Winter Senior Adviser, Arts Sector Ministry for Culture & Heritage
Victor Samra Digital Marketing Manager MoMA, New York
Andrew McIntyre Director Morris Hargreaves McIntyre
Phillipa Tocker Executive Director Museums Aotearoa
Neil Fergus Manager Tourism Services Napier Municipal Theatre
Ian Reid Client Services Manager Napier Municipal Theatre
Rowena Donghi Marketing Manager NBR New Zealand Opera
Aidan Lang General Director NBR New Zealand Opera
Caroline Nelson Publicist NBR New Zealand Opera
Sophie Kelly Festival Producer Nelson Arts Festival
Charlie Unwin Programme Coordinator Festivals Nelson Arts Festival
Cam Woods Marketing Co-ordinator Nelson Arts Festival
Frances McElhinney Business and Admin Manager Nelson School of Music
Noel Murphy Chief Executive New Zealand Book Council
Shona McCullagh Artistic Director New Zealand Dance Company
Frances Turner Artistic Director New Zealand Dance Company
Megan Williams Marketing and Development Manager New Zealand International Arts Festival
Sue Paterson Executive Director New Zealand International Arts Festival
Lissa Twomey Artistic Director New Zealand International Arts Festival
Elizabeth Kerr Manager New Zealand String Quartet Trust
Shelley Davis Design & Website Coordinator New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Thierry Pannetier Marketing Manager New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Kylie Aitchison Managing Director NZ Comedy Trust
Debs McKeen Festival & Event Producer NZ Comedy Trust
Lauren Whitney Marketing & Sponsorship Manager NZ Comedy Trust
Vanessa Zigliani Manager NZ Trio

Name Job Title Organisation
Phillip Clarke Director Objectspace
Sally Sloman Director Opera Factory Trust
Yee Yang 'Square' Lee General Manager Oryza Foundation for Asian Performing Arts
Alec Wheeler Director Otago Festival of the Arts
John Caldwell Chief Evangelist PatronBase Limited
Phillip Jaser General Manager Performing Arts School of New Zealand
Jenni Heka Maori and Pasifika Advisor Playmarket
Murray Lynch Director Playmarket
Helen Kedgley Contemporary Arts Curator Porirua City Council - Pataka Museum
Bob Maysmor Museum Curator Porirua City Council - Pataka Museum
Carla Theunissen Director Q Theatre
Jackie Hay Project Manager REAL New Zealand Festival
Lisa Grace Project Coordinator Riverton Arts Centre
Monty Morrison Festival Director Rotorua Arts Festival
Helen Anderson Marketing & Ticketing Coordinator Royal New Zealand Ballet
Nadia Cook Campaign Marketing Manager Royal New Zealand Ballet
John Richardson Manager Royal Wanganui Opera House
Sally Airey Education and Public Programmes Coordinator SCAPE Christchurch Biennial
Deborah McCormick Director SCAPE Christchurch Biennial
Anna Burtt Marketing Mananger Scots College
Michelle Blundell Programme Manager Silo Theatre
Jessica Smith Executive Director Silo Theatre
Pieter du Plessis Marketing Officer Southern Sinfonia
Philippa Harris General Manager Southern Sinfonia
Amanda Wright Festival Director Splore and Erupt Taupo Arts Festivals
Lyndsey O'Reilly Marketing Manager St James Theatre/The Opera House
Andrew Malmo Managing Director Strata Creative Limited
Kim Knight Feature Writer Sunday Star Times
Sally Woodfield Director SWPR - Performance Arts Publicity and Marketing
James Ashcroft Tumuaki/Artistic Director Taki Rua Productions
Keryn Bristow Marketing and Sponsorship Manager Taki Rua Productions
Esther Green Operations Manager Taki Rua Productions
Catherine Nesus Chair Taki Rua Productions
Drew James Artistic Director Taranaki Arts Festival Trust (TAFT)
Suzanne Porter Chief Executive Taranaki Arts Festival Trust (TAFT)
Penelope Jackson Gallery Director Tauranga Art Gallery
Christina Jeffrey Manager Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust
Michelle Hippolite Kaihautū (Maori Leader) Te Papa
Desmond Brice Group Manager Product Development Te Papa
Suzanne Knight Concept Developer Te Papa
Kate Woodall Senior Concepts Leader, Digital Projects Te Papa
James McCarthy Executive Director Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts
Vicki Allpress-Hill Director The Audience Connection
Margaret Lewis Business Development, Marketing & Communications The Big Idea - Te Aria Nui Trust
Phillip Aldridge Chief Executive The Court Theatre
Ross Gumbly Artistic Director The Court Theatre
Jennifer Boland Learning Programmes Manager The Dowse Art Museum
Emma Bugden Senior Curator The Dowse Art Museum
Rachel Healy Communications Manager The Dowse Art Museum
Cam McCracken Director The Dowse Art Museum
Sally Barnett Producer Development Programmes THE EDGE
Angela Gourdie Theatre Marketing Manager THE EDGE
Nigel Grant Theatre Marketing Executive THE EDGE
Melanie Smith Programming Manager - Commercial THE EDGE
Vaughn Davis Creative Director & Owner The Goat Farm Ltd.
Linda Tyler Director The Gus Fisher Gallery
Campbell Farquar Auckland Programmes Developer The New Zealand Film Archive
Mark Sweeney Manager - Present The New Zealand Film Archive
Donald Trott Director The New Zealand Opera School
Stephen Cleland Director The Physics Room
Paul Sutherland Chairman The Physics Room
David Martin Manager The PumpHouse Theatre
Erica Richards Venue Manager The Turner Centre at Kerikeri
Andy McKim Artistic Director Theatre Passe Muraille, Canada
Janice Marthen Manager Theatre Royal Nelson
John Smythe Managing Editor & Senior Theatre Critic Theatreview
Emere Wano Director Tihi Limited
Garry Nicholas General Manager Toi Maori Aotearoa
Deborah Pathak Operations Assistant Toi Maori Aotearoa
Karen Fraser Payne General Manager Touch Compass Dance Trust
Angela Newell Creative Projects Manager Venture Southland
Chris Morley-Hall Creative Director Waterfront Auckland
Katherine Field Manager, Toi Poneke Arts Centre Wellington City Council
Kirsten Kelly Arts Programme Adviser Wellington City Council
Pat Stuart Chief Executive Wellington Museums Trust
Scott Pothan Director Whangarei Art Museum
Dr Lloyd Williams Director, MA in Arts Management Programme Whitecliffe College of Art & Design
Kat Cox SPARK Coordinator Wintec School of Media Arts
Margi Moore Head of School Wintec School of Media Arts
Christine Young Director Young Communications Ltd.