Celebrate success

The scholarship, research, creative and practice-based achievements of NICAI staff, alumni and students are regularly recognised in awards, promotions, accolades and grants earned both in New Zealand and around the world. NICAI acknowledges the ongoing commitment of its staff and students to excel across the disciplines and celebrates their successes in the local, national and international arena. Congratulations to you all.

• Senior Lecturer in Planning selected for National Leadership Programme
  
  Elizabeth Aitken-Rose is one of only three University of Auckland academic staff members selected to participate in the New Zealand Women in Leadership Programme (NZWiL) this year. This annual initiative aims to support, encourage and contribute to the development of women who are, or aspire to be, leaders in the tertiary sector.
  
  Elizabeth will spend an intensive week in Wellington towards the end of June, working on her own personal and professional development alongside academics from other New Zealand universities, enhancing their research, teaching and strategic leadership potential, and developing nationwide networks with other university women and senior staff.

• Popular Music student and staff successes
  Postgraduate Music student and Songwriter of the Year 2011 Earl Ho has received a four star star review for his group Sherpa's debut album Lesser Flamingos. Recent graduate Janine Foster has a new video of her debut single "Bullets" out, which premiered Monday 16 April on TV FOUR. And the debut album In Circles from Popular Music artist teacher Jeremy Toy's group She's So Rad is a finalist for the 2012 Taite Music Prize.
  Read review of Lesser Flamingos
  View Janine Foster and the Mixtape – "Bullets"
  View interview with Jeremy Toy and Anji Sami

• De Pledge saves the day at the APO concert

Congratulations to Stephen de Pledge, Senior Lecturer in Piano at the School of Music, for an excellent performance with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (APO) on Thursday 12 April. Stephen was asked to step in at very short notice to play the Grieg Piano Concerto with the APO when their international soloist Piers Lane fell ill on the day of the concert.

“Stephen is a distinguished member of the Piano staff at the School of Music. As a concert artist one always has to expect the unexpected. True professionalism for a classical musician is knowing the repertoire and being able to play at the highest level whenever one is called upon to do so" said Professor Robert Constable, Head of the School of Music.

A comment on the APO Facebook page said “And Stephen de Pledge's Grieg, performed at such short notice, well, that was just heroic. You could feel the orchestra urging him on - great stuff!”
 

• Bachelor of Music student awarded First in Family scholarship
  Talented undergraduate student Anna Cooper has been awarded one of the two inaugural "First in Family" scholarships, which were established by New York-based University of Auckland alumnus Grant Biggar for students who haven't had exposure to higher learning within their immediate family.
  
  A passionate flautist and former member of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Symphony Orchestra, Anna has come from Gisborne to study at the University, thanks to the generosity of the Biggar family. She appreciates the extra encouragement the scholarship has given her, as well as the opportunity to live at University Hall and not having to divide her time between her studies and a job.
  
  "I think it would be really difficult studying Classical Performance and working long hours, so this scholarship is helping me to concentrate on my studies. It's also helping me stay focused and motivated knowing I've got the support of the Biggar family behind me."

• Elam graduate receives Festival of Photography awards Annual Fine Arts Commission 2012
  James K Lowe is the recipient of the Annual Fine Arts Commission 2012. He will create new works for this exhibition, continuing with the themes explored in his "In an Honest World" series exhibited both here and at Paris Photoquai. The commission will form the next stage of this young artist’s work.
  
  James said, “The Commission is a huge support and recognition for my own work, and belief in what I do. My work often requires funding in the thousands for every photograph I take: from film costs, models, lighting and printing. My proposal to the Festival surrounded the idea of encapsulating old and new work from the past 4 years. To create an exhibition that follows a narrative I have been working on since studying at Elam School of Fine Arts. I am very pleased with what is to come from the Commission and ecstatic about being able to create new work to complete the narrative in its entirety.”
   

•  Blumhardt Foundation Curatorial Internship goes to Elam graduate
  Ane Tonga, a recent graduate of  Elam School of Fine Arts, is the fifth recipient of this curatorial internship, which provides a rare opportunity for an aspiring curator to develop their skills alongside professional museum staff, in a contemporary gallery setting. Ane will begin work part-time at The Dowse in May, under the mentorship of Senior Curator, Emma Bugden.
  
  Ane's interest is in the distinction between decorative arts and contemporary art, questioning the value of the object; the basis for her potential exhibition at The Dowse. "I am really excited about moving to Wellington and working with The Dowse," says Ane. "My project, while very early in its inception, will investigate taking objects beyond the purely aesthetic and exploring the intangible values embedded in them. "
  
  Ane is proud to have fulfilled her Tongan-born parents' dream of their children pursuing higher education opportunities in New Zealand. For three years while studying, Ane worked as a Tuakana Mentor for Māori and Pacific students at Elam. She currently works as Deputy Supervisor at the TSB Wallace Arts Centre.

• BFA graduate selected for the Hammer Museum's first Los Angeles Biennial Made in LA 2012
  Fiona Connor is one of 60 artists from the LA region selected for this inaugural exhibition, which will debut new installations, videos, films, sculptures, performances and paintings. A professional jury and the public will select one artist from the group of 60 to receive the Mohn prize of US$100,000. Fiona, who recently completed a Master of Fine Arts at the California Institute for the Arts, is currently undertaking a Dunedin Public Art Gallery residency that will culminate in a solo exhibition opening 4 May 2012.
  Read more about Fiona Connor
  Read more about Made in LA 2012

• Elam alumna is 17th McCahon House Artist in Residence
  Painter and MFA graduate Kathy Barry is the 17th Artist in Residence at the McCahon House in Titirangi, from 18 February-26 May 2012. Over the last few years Kathy has been evolving two modes of practice that employ the formal language of geometric abstraction – firstly a series of works that occupy a space in between the disciplines of painting and drawing, developing a series of works-on-paper and, more recently, a series of pencil drawings which jettisons the organisational structure of the grid. Kathy’s intentions for the residency are to produce a significant body of works-on-paper inspired and informed by the residency context, taking the work in fresh new directions as a direct result of having time for experimentation and research.
   

• Elam graduate directs short film chosen for Tribeca Film Festival
  Forty-Three Thousand Feet, a short film written and directed by University of Auckland graduates Matthew Harris and Campbell Hooper, has been selected to premiere in New York at the Tribeca Film Festival. Produced under the New Zealand Film Commision's Premiere Short scheme, directed by Hooper (PGDipFA) and written by Harris (MA, English) the film tells the story of a statistician who is the victim of a freak accident, sucked out of a plane when an emergency door fails mid-flight at 43,000 feet.
  
  Hooper also recently won the Vodafone Music award for Best Video with Joel Kefali from Special Problems. A second short film written by Harris called Snooze:Time, featuring iconic British/Kiwi actress Lisa Harrow, is in post-production and is due for a theatrical release later in the year.
  Read more about Forty-Three Thousand Feet on Tribeca programme

• Architecture lecturer and doctoral students take two Best Paper awards at international conference
  In December 2011, Dr Hugh Byrd and five PhD students from the School of Architecture and Planning presented papers at the International Conference on the Built Environment in Developing Countries (hosted by the University of South Australia and the Universiti Sains Malaysia). Over 130 papers were presented from around 20 different countries. The School came away with the two best paper awards; a significant achievement given the number and diversity of other presentations.

• Elam lecturer's filmworks selected for the Armory Show in New York
  Gavin Hipkins' experimental screen narrative, This Fine Island, has been selected for the inaugural edition of Armory Film at the internationally acclaimed Armory Show in New York, 8-11 March 2012. Curated by Moving Image, the screenings will take place in conjunction with a solo show by Martin Basher, presented by Auckland's Starkwhite Gallery.
  
  Hipkins' film revisits Charles Darwin's journey to the Bay of Islands in 1835, but in his adaption, Darwin's nineteenth-century travel writing in The Voyage of the Beagle becomes a vehicle for present day tourism, travel romance, and racial othering, against the backdrop of New Zealand's lush landscape.

Celebrate success archive