The PIYN project involves aspiring artists and performers from Auckland’s ethnic communities, working with the best of contemporary UK talent, to workshop, capacity build, collaborate and celebrate creative energy.
As part of the British Council New Zealand’s New Work New Audiences programme we produced a flagship event called People In Your Neighbourhood which launched March 2009, and every year holds some of our main New Zealand arts work; focusing on diversity, inclusion and positive social transformation and knowledge sharing. Stay tuned for updates.
Highlights from 2009
in 2009 the PIYN project launched with an ambitious programme of cultural diversity collaborations. Urban Soul Orchestra musicians travelled to NZ to rehearse and perform in the PIYNJ show which was staged at Womad in Auckland and the Transmission room in Auckland. An album was also recorded as part of the project, invoilving artists from Auckland city who all had English as a second language. The documentary of the project was screened nationwide and won the supreme award from the NZ Government's Governor General's Office for Outstanding Diversity projects.
Multiple language posters were also generated for the project, a first for Auckland's culutral sector - languages included were Arabic, Fijian, English, Mandarin, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish and Korean.
Highlights from 2010
PIYN 2010 involved live shows in Auckland, Taupo and Wellington in May 2010, as well as UK visitors USO, and acclaimed street poet and urban creative guru Charlie Dark (Attica Blues, Blacktronica), who was also at the Pacific Arts Festival. The show process was again made into an excellent documentary. The PIYN 2010 programme focused on participatory media, live streaming internet technology and online income generation toolkits for diverse aspiring creatives. Helen Baxter conducted creative entrepreneur online toolkit sessions, and her work has recently been published as an e-book, for all to use.
Highlights from 2011
In 2011 we again had a full programme which featured amongst others Pacific sister Rosanna Raymond and the Hip Hip Shakespeare Company, featuring Akala and poet Anthony Anaxagorou. We also welcomed Oliver Wayman from UK social enterprise Bottletop Organisation to talk about his work in Brazil and Africa with economically deprived communities, and completed a music project with UK partners the Camden Roundhouse and NZ partners Redbull entitled the "Otherside Of The World".
Highlights from 2012
The 2012 programme focused on capacity building workshops and social enterprise initiatives. Visits included Swifty and Paul Bradshaw discussing UK street culture, publishing and promotion, with an Auckland workshop dedicated to spreading their knowledge to young aspiring creatives, and a visit from Richard Reynolds from Guerilla Gradening UK, who helps us with our urban Edible Gardens project, which saw us transform a couple of urban spaces (at the BizDojo and Kitchen Auckland) into useable edible urban gardens - highlighting the use of urban spaces for positive and heathy transformation!
Contact us
We would love to hear from you. Please contact our office to learn more.