Culture 101

Te Ara Minhinnick on heading to the Venice Biennale

Te Ara Minhinnick is a Maori artist from Waiuku, descended from Ngati Te Ata, whose practice begins with gathering uku, sand and soil from the waterways of her rohe and asking what histories those materials carry. She's one of eight emerging artists, curators and writers selected for Learning from Venice, a programme funded by Naveya & Sloane giving Aotearoa creatives the chance to experience the Biennale firsthand. She joins Culture 101 fresh from packing her bags, on going overseas to see art for only the second time in her life.

Jenny Scown built Inspirit gallery on her family farm. Nineteen years later, it's going strong.

Jenny Scown spent years as a magazine photographer in Auckland before moving back to the Waikato to have "country kids". She built a purpose-built gallery on the family farm outside Tamahere, near Hamilton, with views across to the Waikato River and Sanctuary Mountain, eight minutes from Cambridge. Perlina paid a visit to find out how you build a destination gallery in the middle of a paddock, and what nineteen years of backing emerging artists alongside established ones looks like.

Paul McLellan-Smith: Artsenta turns 40 and wants to hear from you

Artsenta, the Otepoti Dunedin creative space supporting people experiencing mental health and addiction challenges, turns 40 on 17 June. To mark the occasion, it's hosting a symposium on creativity and wellbeing in October and is seeking expressions of interest for presentations. The EOI deadline is 31 May. Director Paul McLellan-Smith joins Culture 101 to talk about four decades of work.

Amanda Nguyen: from rape survivor to astronaut, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Time Woman of the Year

Amanda Nguyen was sexually assaulted while at Harvard, then discovered her rape kit would be destroyed in six months unless she filed for an extension. Blinded by rage, she emailed everyone she knew and built a team that passed the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights through the US Congress unanimously, signed into law by Barack Obama. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, named Time Woman of the Year in 2022, and last April became the first Vietnamese American woman in space. When she landed, a survivor texted to point out the date: April 14, the same day her rape kit had been scheduled for destruction eleven years earlier. She joins Culture 101 to discuss her memoir Saving Five.

Duncan Pepe Long won the Adam Portraiture Award. He found out just before a class he had to teach.

The call came in on a Wellington number. Self-taught Auckland artist Duncan Pepe Long knew he should probably call back. He was asked to sit down, told he'd won Aotearoa's most prestigious portraiture award, and then had to go and stand in front of 25 students and pretend nothing had happened. His winning portrait is of Solomon Tamehana, a close friend of nearly 30 years, painted with a ring light, a side eye and a background of what Duncan describes as gay bears.