I went down something of an Instagram rabbithole this week. For some people it's watching cooking or pots being made. For me it's been bookbinding. So meditative, many craft elements are combined.

Nearly a thousand choir singers converged on Ōtepoti Dunedin over the last few days as the Big Sing competition finished.

The Arts news for 31 August.

If there's any country that understands and appreciates what film or television can do for tourism, it's us, here in New Zealand. Over the past decade, Scotland has been experiencing something similar.

St Heliers is celebrating its first Art Festival which started this weekend and will run until the 14th of September.

Jennifer Ludlum is on stage again and this time, as a ferocious, complicated and dramatic matriarch in Silo's Mother Play. Written by American Pulitzer-winning playwright, Paula Vogel, it first debuted on Broadway in 2024 and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. It follows a mother - and her two children over four decades across five evictions and Jennifer who plays the role of the mother - Phyllis - has a complex relationship to her two children Carl and Martha. The show is set against political and societal changes in America; from the 40s to the 80s. Jennifer Ludlum is well known to audiences as Shortland Street's Leanne Black, finishing a 12-year stint in 2023. But since then, she's returned to her theatre roots appearing in several theatre shows including ATC's Murder on the Orient Express earlier this year. She speaks to Culture 101 about tackling a role she describes as 'tricky' and why theatre remains her first love.

The government has released a creative and culture strategy to boost the industry by 2030.

Ngahuia Te Awekotuku is an art historian, curator and writer who has been a trailblazer in the public representation of culture in Aotearoa New Zealand over seven decades. Of Te Arawa, Tuhoe, Ngapuhi and Waikato, Te Awekotuku's memoir Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery recently won the 2025 Ockham General Non-Fiction Award. It follows her early years: from growing up on the pa, steeped in culture and hot water at Ohinemutu in Rotorua, to becoming involved in women's, queer and Maori liberation movements in the late '60s and early '70s. Ngahiua presents the terrific TV series Waharoa: Art of the Pacific, which is streaming now on Neon, in which she took a passionate personal journey through contemporary public indigenous art. That journey grounded in histories, friendships and the charge of the art's locations. Ngahuia is also a panelist on RNZ arts and culture panel podcast Tukua, which we premiere a new episode of here on Culture 101 this afternoon after 3pm. Ngahuia is speaking at writers' events at Lit Whanganui Booklovers Festival 20 September at Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery and the Nelson Arts Festival 25th of October

If you've watched any of the leading television shows in the past 25 years, it's likely Lesli Linka Glatter had a hand in directing them. Mad Men, Homeland, Twin Peaks, Gilmore Girls and The Walking Dead are just a few on a long and impressive list.

In South Canterbury, Geraldine is home to a unique vinyl and coffee outlet called The Record Keeper. It's entirely powered by solar power and a bit of a stage for up and coming musicians Next week Geraldine's theatre, cinema and town hall celebrates its centenary.