Toi Pōneke

File under: arts, events, Wellington

The Wellington Arts Centre is now a year old, and appropriately for Māori Language Week, it has now been officially named Toi Pōneke. It also now has a Wikipedia page, and as of a few minutes ago, a ZoomIn place.

The Centre has attracted a bit of grumbling (in White Fungus magazine, and on this site as well), but most of that is related to the fact that it could never meet all the demand for cheap studio space, rather than anything that the Centre itself is doing wrong. It's clearly become an indispensable part of the Wellington art and performance scene over the last year, with plenty of exhibitions and workshops to engage the public as well as full-time artists. Eric Holowacz, its Arts Programmes and Services Manager, also publishes a very comprehensive email newsletter The No 8 Wire, which is archived online at the Gondwanaland Ministry of Culture.

While I haven't heard of any official birthday celebrations, you could do worse than pop down tomorrow at 5:30pm for the opening of Windance (which also got a mention from eco-hipster blog Treehugger). Maybe the recently rather quiet gallery openings site P.O.G. blog will make it and manage a review.