While other kids went to kindergarten, when he was a small child Tongan New Zealand artist John Vea was on the factory floor where his father worked.

The experience has led Vea to make the relationship between factory and manual labour work and the Pacific Island community central to his performances, sculpture and installations. Exhibition Outcast at Tamaki Makaurau’s Gus Fisher Gallery brings Vea together with fourth-generation Australian South Sea Islander artist Jasmine Togo-Brisby.

Toi Mahara gallery director Janet Bayly offers the whakatauki: ‘ahakoa he iti he pounamu’, when she speaks of the Kāpiti Coast’s regional Gallery in Waikanae. “The gift of something small but precious.”

Small, precious and also shiny new, the opening of an Athfield Architects designed purpose-built building for Toi Mahara has been 20 years in the making. A picturesque one hour train ride north of Wellington, the public gallery has opened its doors with a weekend of celebrations October 28 to 29.

This week saw the passing of a legend in the arts in Aotearoa. Sir Jon Trimmer, arguably New Zealand’s most beloved dancer has died aged 84. With him to the end in Paekākāriki alongside his wife Lady Jacqui was Sir Jon’s older sister Coral Trimmer. Now aged 93, Coral is of similar enduring stock. An acclaimed jazz and classical musician, she started playing the harmonica 88 years ago, and continues to play.  Mark Amery spoke to Coral at home about Jon’s passing.

Freshwater ecologist, environmental science researcher and activist Dr Mike Joy is a well known outspoken voice in the need for our society to make radical changes to deal with our major environmental crises. 

He is one of Aotearoa’s foremost public scientists, but also a supporter of artists and art projects as a way of raising awareness to enable change.

Lucy Godoroja unfastens the miniature world of wonder and the surprising history of the button. In her book, All Buttons Great and Small.

Culture lover and curator Rosie Dawson-Hewes is passionate about accessibility in the arts. It led her to collaborate with a new Bay of Plenty art patron Fiona Menzies to create A Seat at the Table at this month’s Tauranga Arts Festival (19-28 October).

Henderson artists Bernie Harfleet and Turtle Sarten make visible the things we often find uncomfortable to talk about. Urgent social issues all around us: like family harm, mental health and poverty.

These self-described creators of 'Community Activated Art Action' do remarkable things. Since 2002 Bernie and Turtle have been staging installations that involve public participation to raise awareness and encourage action.

Cat Lovett is a New Zealand textile designer with a passion for the sustainable. Her interest in design has led her to live in Mexico's textile capital, Oaxaca. There she has been closely studying the region's ancient textile traditions.

Self declared pirate queen Mandy Mayhem gives Maggie Tweedie a slice of life in Waitati. The celebrant, MC and Dunedin City Councillor gives the regional wrap into the cultural happenings of the bustling seaside village.

It took until the 1970s for Toi Māori (Māori  art) to develop a tradition in clay (uku). One that in part looks back to an ancestral Lapita pottery tradition across the Pacific. 

Today, the collective artist-led rise of this unique ceramics movement stands as a striking development in contemporary Māori art: Ngā Kaihanga Uku, the makers with clay.