Palmerston North-based photographer Tony Reddrop spent every weekend for a year, in the same spot, asking passersby to pose for a portrait. Now he's about to reveal his Random Portraits, printed to lifesize, for the inaugural Palmerston North Fringe Festival. They reflect Palmerson North's multi-cultural make up as well as the personalities of the people who agreed to pose for their photographs.

He's spent much of his life tramping and climbing the Southern Alps and the past four years researching their history, and now Nic Lowe is chronicling the story of the formidable mountain range...

A recent survey in the United states revealed that nearly 95% of male ballet dancers faced physical or verbal attacks because they dance. Danseur, a film documenting the toll this takes on the dancers. is about to premiere in New Zealand. Scott Gormley directed and produced the film and is heading to New Zealand for the screening.

Palmerston North's newly rennovated art gallery has just reopened, about seven months earlier than expected. Te Manawa houses an outstanding New Zealand art collection and when it closed in June, renovations and repairs were expected to take 10 months. Following widespread public concern about the building and the gallery's future, the Palmerston North Council has reopened it but with surprisingly little fanfare.

An exhibition co-inciding with the 50th anniversary of Wellington's McLeavey Gallery opening, offers us an insight gallerist Peter McLeavey's extensive and significant private collection of photographs.

Music...sound...noise... They all intersect in a new festival of experimental performances, live electronic music, audio-visual works and sound installations. Aotearoa Audio Arts is being hosted by Victoria University of Wellington's New Zealand School of Music and it's bringing over some international leaders in the field of sonic art. One is Canadian Nicolas Bernier, an award winning audiovisual artist who invents new kinetic instruments that he plays using computers rather than by hand. Lynn Freeman spoke to him and to another guest speaker, Mo Zareei who lectures in Sonic Arts & Engineering at Victoria : The Aotearoa Audio Arts Festival in Wellington starts on Thursday.

An Australian advocate for improving children's literacy and champion of indigenous literature is heading to New Zealand to talk to our writers about these and other issues at the 2018 National Writers Forum. Dr Anita Heiss is one of Australia's best-known authors of indigenous literature. She's an author, poet, satirist and social commentator. She's actively getting books to Aboriginal and Torres Islander children living in outlying and disadvantaged areas, but she tells Lynn Freeman that so much more needs to be done to improve some pretty appalling illiteracy rates. The NZSA National Writers Forum starts on Friday at the University of Auckland

World of Wearable Art is 30 this year - three decades of putting on stage thousands of jaw-dropping, labour-intensive and madly creative garments. 4,878 of them to be exact. What started as a small local then national competition now sees international competitors often taking home the top prizes. In 2011 Mary Wing To from London had studied fashion design and was an apprentice harness maker when she took out the Supreme WOW Award Winner with her leather horse-head garment. Lynn Freeman asked Mary what she's looking for as a judge this year - and how long it took to craft her winning garment: The 2018 World of Wearable Art Awards Show starts this Thursday at Wellington's TSB Arena.

An unexpected silver lining from global uncertainty is emerging for traditional arts and crafts as people seek comfort in nostalgia. That's the view of expat Curator Vera Mey, who gives the example of renewed interest in the dying art of silk weaving in Cambodia. After working in Singapore for several years on contemporary art projects, Vera is currently in London working on a PhD at the School of Oriental and African studies. She's just been back home to speak at the Asian Aotearoa Arts Hui that's wrapping up today. Vera tells Lynn Freeman she's most often asked about New Zealand's past artistic connection to South East Asia.

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One posed nude with her guitar, a second is running with a tokotoko, while another sits surrounded by owls. West Auckland artist Penny Howard has captured women who inspire her on canvas for a solo show she calls Mana Muse. Singer-songwriter and TV show host Anika Moa, New Zealand poet laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh, writer and artist Sia Figiel and politician Marama Davidson are the four muses in the exhibition. Lynn Freeman spoke to Penny and Selina - first asking Penny how she selected her four muses: Mana Muse opens at Auckland's Whitespace gallery next Sunday