John Parker tells Lynn Freeman he's loved puppets from childhood. Still life with chickens premieres at the Mangere Arts Centre on Thursday before seasons at the ASB Waterfront Theatre, Palmerston North and Wellington.

Australia's Griffith Review, a quarterly journal that investigates Australian and New Zealand literature and current affairs, is encouraging this discussion by bringing authors from around the Commonwealth to various Writers Festivals, including the one in Wellington.

Lindauer settled in Woodville in 1890 and remains better known here than in his hometown of Pilsen, now part of the Czech Republic. Though an exhibition of his New Zealand paintings there a couple of years ago made his compatriots more aware of his work.

Elizabeth has filled gallery walls with dozens of fish and white butterflies and plunged us into the ocean around the distant Kermadec Islands. She brought together works at Aratoi Gallery in the Wairarapa recently and now that collection has been gather together in a book - Cellular Memory - edited by her curator, Greg O'Brien.

These days every second programme on TV is some sort of cooking show, but it's hardly a new thing. There have been TV cooking shows as long as there's been TV.

Since the 1970s British photographer Jem Southam has been witnessing and documenting dramatic changes in the English countryside he loves. Jem's a very patient man, observing changes at a single location over many months or years.

It's taken two years of work so far and there'll be more years ahead as archaeologists sort though almost 10,000 objects unearthed from a swamp at the Waitaki River mouth more than 50 years ago. Richard Walter and Chloe Searle from the North Otago Museum discuss why the Willetts collection is so remarkable.

Will virtual reality, VR, help filmmakers craft a new kind of experience for film fans? That's being explored by some of the next generation of filmmakers at Victoria University's new Miramar Creative Centre. Director of the Centre is award-winning film director and producer Dr Paul Wolffram.

Bronwyn Holloway-Smith went to a lot of trouble for her exhibition – spending years learning scuba diving so she could get up close to the Southern Cross Cable.

An exhibition representing 20 years of Graham Fletcher's paintings - some rescued from obscurity in his mother's garage - is about to go on show in Auckland. The Third Space: the Art of Graham Fletcher, which is part of the Auckland Festival programme, opens March 2 2018 at the Gus Fisher Gallery and is curated by Linda Tyler.