The late art historian Jonathan Mane Wheoki has referred to Te Tai Tokerau in the North as the crucible of Māori art. Such were the number of groundbreaking modern Māori artists to come from this region in the 1950s and 1960s.Also among them is Elizabeth Mountain Ellis, who features with many in Te Ao Hurihuri, an exhibition of work by this generation at the Wairau Māori Art gallery in Whangarei.

If you were to speak into an old telephone - what would you say?

London-based artist, Joe Bloom has been finding out. A View From A Bridge offers strangers passing by the opportunity to look out onto the water and speak into an old-fashioned chunky red telephone - sharing their inner thoughts, feelings and observations.

Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different region in Aotearoa for the weekly Regional Wrap. This week we’re in Russell - Kororāreka.

As painter Claude Monet's garden and house in Giverny is to France, beloved artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman's garden and house is, in a more contemporary fashion, becoming to England. It's set on the dramatic shingle beach headland of Dungeness in the South East of England, in the shadow of a giant twin nuclear power station.

An Australian sculptor is reclaiming the female form through her woodwork.

Kaikōura is celebrating 60 years of surfing in a new long-term exhibition at their museum Wharenga - First Wave. Known for whale watching, wildlife and its beautiful coastline, the surfing history of the small town on Te Wai Pounamu’s East Coast hasn’t been as well known or well-documented until now.

In Kathryn Burnett’s new solo comedy play, Nicola Cheeseman is Back, Nicola is sick of trying to do it all. In an all too familiar situation for those in middle age: she has lost her mojo.  

With the guitar, kids and job is the play’s solo star, acclaimed actor Jodie Rimmer. Recently turned 50, with two boys heading into teenagehood, Jodie relates.

It’s not all online: live events are often where we come together as communities, sharing passions and considering the issues concerning us. It’s important they’re accessible to all. 

Except they’re not. Many people have impairments that can make it more difficult or impossible to attend live events. Deaf and disability advocates argue in fact it is the society that is creating the disability, not the person.

A new generation and those who never made it as far as Bluff can now discover this country’s iconic Pāua Shell House in an online virtual tour.

The Tūrangi Tongariro region, at the spectacular southern end of Lake Tāupo bordering the Volcanic Plateau, is midway between Wellington and Auckland, Napier and New Plymouth and Hamilton and Palmerston North. A popular topping off point, you couldn’t get more central.