16 November 2023

We are celebrating the launch of our new Creative Collaborations website with a panel discussion in Wellington at the Deluxe Cinema of the Embassy Theatre on 30 November.

Creative Collaborations is an online resource mapping the partnership between Aotearoa New Zealand and Latin America’s creative economies, revealing the projects, people, and institutions at the forefront of our creative engagement with Latin America. It was launched in Auckland on 2 November with a well attended panel discussion in New Plymouth on 15 November.

At the event, our programme manager Nicole Freeman will take guests through the site demonstrating the links between Aotearoa and Latin America. Guest speakers in Wellington are Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington’s Dr Lee Davidson who is a writer and lecturer at the University’s Museum and Heritage Studies Programme; Huhana Smith, artist, academic, and head of Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University; and alys longley, artist, researcher and lecturer, University of Auckland.

The Wellington launch of Creative Collaborations takes place at the Embassy Theatre on Thursday 15 November from 5:30 – 7:30pm. Attendance is free, but please register for catering purposes.

Dr Lee Davidson has worked as a teacher and researcher at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington for 23 years. She has a particular interest in museum exhibitions that enhance intercultural understanding, empathy and openness to others’ perspectives. Lee first connected with Latin America when she studied an exhibition exchange between Te Papa Tongarewa and Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. This exchange involved E Tū Ake: Māori Standing Strong and Aztecs: Conquest and glory. Lee’s most recent project is the exhibition De la Milpa a la Mesa: A Mexican Food Journey, which toured New Zealand between 2021 and 2023.

alys longley is a New Zealand interdisciplinary artist, choreographer and creative writer, whose work has been performed in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and South America. alys has close connections with Chilean artists. She has worked with Chilean artist Máximo Corvalán-Pincheira, whom she met in 2016 at Space to Dream: Recent Art from South America – the first major exhibition of contemporary South American art in New Zealand. She’s currently working with Francisco González Castro, a Chilean visual artist she collaborated with on the project Beberemos El Vino Nuevo, Juntos! | Let Us Drink the New Wine, Together! in 2022.

Huhana Smith is a visual artist, curator and principle investigator in research who engages in major environmental, trans-disciplinary, kaupapa Māori and action-research projects. She is co-principle investigator for research that includes mātauranga Māori methods with sciences to actively address climate change concerns for coastal Māori lands in Horowhenua-Kāpiti. Huhana actively encourages the use of art and design’s visual systems combined in exhibitions, to expand how solutions might integrate complex issues and make solutions more accessible for local communities. She is an Associate Professor at Massey University.