Madeline Child’s Seven Long Planks will be at Brett McDowell Gallery from Friday March 6th.

City Planners:
The Dunedin Hospital Project

343 George St Dates: 17th – 21st March Hours: 10 am – 4.30 pm

“Internationally recognised and award-winning consultancy the City Planners will be back in Dunedin to provide pivotal and decisive input into the development of Dunedin’s new hospital.

“Our values and deep, practical knowledge can be harnessed to contribute crucial insight to the successful and timely delivery of a new hospital that meets people’s expectations”, said co-CEOs Marion Familton, Liz Rowe, and Bronwyn Gayle.

“We will invite participants to join us in developing fresh and innovative ideas by thinking through clay. During our many years of practical, solution-based approaches to problem solving, it has become clear that clay is a portal through which we can channel and harness outstanding solutions”, they said.

The co-CEOs said the City Planners team was known for its innovative thinking and intellectual culture which empowers change by looking ahead to create value today and fuel prosperity for tomorrow.

Two years ago, the team embarked on an ambitious project to rebuild Dunedin city in clay. This was an astounding success, with huge public buy-in and hands-on assistance from all walks of life. By re-imagining the city towards sustainable and inclusive growth the project was able to generate ideas that will keep the council planners busy for years to come.

“Our preliminary research into the hospital project has identified a key issue for analysis, namely the fake ward syndrome. It appears that those writing the cheques and those advising them believe that building wards that will sit empty for years is a strategic move that will save money. It looks like they’ve forgotten a key principle of a successful building project – content is king. We need to circle back over some of these decisions and take a deep dive into how a hospital actually works”, they added”.

Dunedin Dream Brokerage supported

From https://www.dunedinfringe.nz/

_{Peter Hawkesby Heart Basket 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Anna Miles Gallery, photography by Samuel Hartnett}

Dunedin Public Art Gallery presents Suite 2026; Part One – Peter Hawkesby’s Heart Basket & other work until 24th May

“One of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most highly regarded ceramicists, Peter Hawkesby moved to Ōtepoti Dunedin in 2020. After many years of living and working in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, he arrived in the South with the assorted set of loose parts that accumulate over a lifetime of working with and thinking about clay. Hawkesby’s current studio is a corrugated iron crow’s nest looking out over the city and towards Te Awa Ōtākou, the Otago harbour, and the ocean beyond. This has provided the backdrop for five productive years, where substantial new works have dovetailed into Hawkesby’s process of excavating and reconfiguring the objects and ideas that he has returned to throughout his career.

Heart Basket & other work brings Hawkesby’s recent series Heart Basket (2023-25) together with what he calls ‘re-jigged’ works – assemblages that are built from ceramic bits and pieces that accrue in his studio over time. There is a different tenor across the two bodies of work: where the series Heart Basket is grounded and contemplative, the post-kiln constructions are energetic and lively. Together, they offer an introduction to Hawkesby’s practice that celebrates the elastic nature of his work – pushing and pulling between past and present, while grounded in a love of clay and its possibilities.

Heart Basket & other work is the first exhibition in Suite 2026. Suite is an ongoing exhibition series that presents recent work by artists living and working in Ōtepoti Dunedin.” from dunedin.art.museum

Taarn Scott & Hana Pera Aoake present Let the honey soak through at Te Atamira, Queenstown until April 27th.

“Inspired by bee networks and their relationship with the environment, this exhibition from Taarn Scott and Hana Pera Aoake examines the patterns bees create to sustain their lives, replicated by human systems, hiveware, keepers and agricultural formations…

Most of us know that bees are essential pollinators who play a crucial role in our ecosystem. What you might not know is that our native bees (Ngaro huruhuru), (of which there are 28, with 27 being endemic to Aotearoa), don’t produce honey or beehives. Ngaro huruhuru are as vital as ever for understanding the complexity of te aitanga pepeke (the insect world) in climate adaptation.

‍Artists Taarn Scott and Hana Pera Aoake (Ngāti Hinerangi, Ngāti Mahuta, Tainui/Waikato, Ngāti Waewae, Tauranga) feel it’s important to draw attention to these replicating systems and patterns that are so integral to our lives and our biodiversity, pollination and produce. These building blocks of life invite us to slow down and notice the cycles of repair and our entanglement as humans with lifeforms big and small.

‍Through kōrero, research, and art making, the artists seek a way of gently untangling the paralysing dread of the rapid climate crisis.  Their practice responds to critical ecosystems and life cycles as a way of understanding our evolving climate and landscape in Aotearoa, by writing, making films, sound, drawing, installation, performance, hanging out and making ceramics together”. From teatamira.nz

_{Working image courtesy of the artists, 2025.}