If you liked this article share it with your friends. They will thank you later.

Nau Mai, Haere Mai
Mā te pohewa mā te auaha hoki, ka whakapuaki ngā kura e huna ana. With imagination and creativity a hidden jewel can be revealed. Welcome to Toi Ōtautahi.

Nau Mai, Welcome to Toi Ōtautahi – The virtual arts office for Ōtautahi, Christchurch.

Toi Ōtautahi is a partnership project between Christchurch City Council, Creative NZ, Rātā Foundation, Mana Whenua, and Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

Christchurch has produced some of this country’s best known and most celebrated artists and artworks, and Ōtautahi continues to be a place where innovation and radical creativity flourishes. We are unapologetic supporters and champions for the significant role the city and its creatives have played, and continue to play in Aotearoa.

We want this site to celebrate all that is creative in the city and its wider environs and we want you to be part of it. Whether you’re a creative, an organisation, an audience member, a supporter or a visitor to this city, let us know what we can do to help make Ōtautahi the best city for creativity in Aotearoa.

Latest News
Events & Exhibitions

5th Annual Sculpture Festival Opens this Weekend at The Arts Centre

Don’t miss the 5th annual sculpture festival at Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre which opens this weekend…
Sculpture
Is Christchurch now the coolest place in Aotearoa? The Answer is YES!
RNZ reports on Christchurch being the capital of cool – as big-name bands and DJs give the clubs a spin,…
SCAPE Public Art Announces Season 2024 Artists
SCAPE reveals the artists for its upcoming new season.
Sculpture
Apply Now for the Toi Ōtautahi Incubator Programme
Apply now for the free Toi Ōtautahi Incubator Programmme which supports Ōtautahi artists, musicians, performers, filmmakers and writers to develop…
Write On! A Month of Write-Ins at the Libraries
This October, Christchurch City Libraries is running a month of events across the network to welcome writers back into our…
Literature
Events & Exhibitions
Chant Charts – Saskia Leek
Chant Charts is the new exhibition from Saskia Leek showing at Jonathan Smart Gallery until October 5.
Visual Arts
An Expedition into Portraiture- with ‘Photographic Alchemist’ Rewa Rendall
Photographic alchemist, Rewa Rendall is following in the footsteps of Antarctic photography pioneers – and her art is both timeless…
Upcoming Events
04.10 – 27.10 2024

Laura Donkers – Subsume at Stoddart Cottage

10:00 AM
Laura Donkers’ exhibition of sound and printed works interweaves human-nature field recordings to critique historical genealogies and dense connotative webs contained in…
Stoddart Cottage, Diamond Harbour
05.10 – 20.10 2024

Sculpture Festival 2024

10:00 AM
The 5th annual Sculpture Festival at Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre features work by some of the country’s…
Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre
05.10 – 08.11 2024

Trials – A Solo Exhibition from Kophie

11:00 AM
Kophie’s debut solo exhibition called “Trials” is an exhibition inspired by street culture, graffiti, hip hop & nostalgia…
Fibre Gallery, 285 Cashel St
12.10 2024

The White Room Art Studio Open Day

10:00 AM – 2:00 pm
The White Room is a creative studio that removes barriers to making art for people with intellectual disabilities and other…
180 Avonside Drive
20.10 2024

For the Love of Ceramics – a Show and Tell with Cheryl Lucas, Nichola Shanley and Janna van Hasselt

10:30 AM – 12:00 pm
Objectspace in Ōtautahi presents: For the love of ceramics – a show and tell with Cheryl Lucas, Nichola Shanley and…
Sir Miles Warren Gallery, 65 Cambridge Terrace
Opportunities

Applications are Now Open for Hagley Writers’ Institute 2025!

Applications are now open for the 2025 programme of the Hagley Writers’ Institute
World Buskers Festival 2025 – Wanna Be a Part of it?
If you’re an extraordinary performer who can entertain, engage, and inspire, the World Buskers Festival wants to hear from you!
Apply Now for the Toi Ōtautahi Incubator Programme
Apply now for the free Toi Ōtautahi Incubator Programmme which supports Ōtautahi artists, musicians, performers, filmmakers and writers to develop…
Event Manager Needed for Akaroa French Festival 2025
Event Managed needed for Akaroa French Festival – Akaraoa French Festival is looking for an experienced person to manage all…
Apply Now for Kahurangi Toi Atea – the Inaugural National Screen Industry Training Programme
Kahurangi Toi Atea – the inaugural National Screen Industry Training Programme has launched! The 2024 Programme has 13 courses available…
Opportunities & Proposals
Applications are open for the 2024 CLNZ|NZSA Research Grants
Four grants valued at $5,000 each are available for Aotearoa New Zealand writers to conduct research for a fiction or…
Literature
People & Places
Feature

Frank Film Presents: Tusiata Avia

Racist slurs and a tin of corned beef – how award-winning poet and performer Tusiata Avia came to be the voice of New Zealand Pasifika…
Film and Moving Image, Pasifika, Poetry
Blast from the Past
Cry TV – A Music Station Like No Other
Former Rock Chick, Julie Moffatt, looks back at her time on seminal music tv station – CRY TV
Broadcasting, Music, Television
News
Hannah Powell – From North Canterbury to Rolling Stone
Hannah Powell is the epitome of a Go Get ‘Em attitude. The 24-year-old followed her dream and is now writing…
Music
Feature, InterviewFeatured
Jacob Yikes, Multi-Disciplinary Artist
Jacob Yikes tells us about his path to becoming a full-time artist, street art in Ōtautahi and his favourite local…
Paint and Print, Street Art, Visual Arts
Ōtautahi in the News

Music Feature on RNZ: Jazz in the 21st Century

Christchurch saxophonist, Jimmy Rainey, on RNZ’s Afternoon show talking about jazz in the 21st century
The Remarkable Friendship of Iconic Architects Warren and Mahoney -RNZ’s Culture 101
Listen to Perlina Lau’s interview with Jane Mahoney and Rick Harvie on their moving film, ‘Maurice and I’
Ōhinehou Lyttelton with ceramicist Grace Uivel – RNZ
Listen to ceramist Grace Uivel on Culture 101 talking about her hometown of Lyttelton
Review: The Deadbeat Opera – a Low-Life Comedy about Crime, Grime, and Uncertain Politics
Erin Harrington reviews The Deadbeat Opera, presented by Free Theatre, adapted and directed by Peter Falkenberg, at the Pump House, Friday 6…
Ōtautahi in the News
Steve Braunias on WORD Christchurch
Newsroom’s literary editor, Steve Braunias, reviews his time at the recent WORD Christchurch festival. Spoiler: He loved it.
The Killing – RNZ’s Culture 101
CoCA’s exhibition by the collective ‘The Killing’ is featured on Radio NZ’s Culture 101 programme – read and listen here.
Ōtautahi in the News
Electric Avenue: The Prodigy and Chase & Status to Headline Christchurch festival – RNZ
RNZ’s Adam Burns looks at the headline acts coming to Electric Avenue
Map
Show all
Central City
East
North
South
West
Wider Ōtautahi
Contact
Subscribe to our Newsletter

Fill in your details below.

Subscription
Name
Name