The heritage Victorian homestead, originally built in 1895 and host to many a royal over the years, would be the ideal spot for a party, and so fittingly was the venue on Friday night for the first of this year’s Great New Zealand Arts Dinner Parties from the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi and a series of generous hosts. The reason for these gatherings? To connect seemingly random groups of creatives, supporters and wealthy patrons, and raise funds to help raise the profile of the arts in Aotearoa - a worthy and important cause.

At Otahuna, the lighting set the scene for an intimate dinner party for 15 hosted in the lodge’s formal dining room, with the lights of the fireplace flickering against the room’s original gold-patterned Japanese leather wallpaper. The night’s host was co-owner Hall Cannon, Arts Foundation trustee and backer of the fantastic new Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Arts Award to be announced in August, joined by his partner Miles Refo, Arts Foundation lead Jo Brown and recently appointed Arts Foundation general manager Jessica Palalagi.

They were joined at the table by a group of well-dressed guests and supporters of the arts, including a fabulous woman wearing a red high-necked top that she’d had made in Singapore, and another who matched a perfect fluffy knit with jewellery she had made herself. Fittingly, given the foundation’s ethos of bringing together arts lovers and outstanding artists, two icons of Aotearoa’s arts scene, 2010 Arts Foundation Laureates choreographer Michael Parmenter and composer and percussionist Gareth Farr, came to Christchurch for the evening, too.

Guests were greeted with Bollinger and canapes in the entrance hall, before being treated to a surprise performance by choreographer Parmenter in the billiards room, before taking their seats for a four-course dinner created by executive chef Jimmy McIntyre; with many of the ingredients for the meal sourced from the estate’s grounds (complete with a potager garden, orchard and mushroom house).

The conversation flowed just as easily as the (many) bottles of Craggy Range wines to match each course, with Parmenter and Farr sharing with the table what it meant to them to receive the laureate award and prize money in 2010. Parr admitted to missing the initial phone calls informing him of the news (he was in his studio, swept away in the flow of creativity), while Parmenter spent some of his grant to fix his teeth after years of neglect from living on a struggling artist’s income.

Plenty of arty conversations followed, from a discussion - or rather, a very educational explanation from Palalagi - about NFTs and the possibilities for artists, to Parmenter’s thought-provoking point about the pressure on artists, and dancers in particular, today to ensure their work always has a ‘story’, rather than simply being an expression of the body. Can art simply exist for art’s sake?

It surely helps when it is valued and our artists are financially supported - the aim of the Arts Foundation itself, and one of the reasons for the various dinner parties happening across the motu this week (Otahuna was followed by two this weekend in Tairāwhiti Gisborne and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with others this week).

Using the old-fashioned art of IRL connection to help celebrate the importance of the arts to Aotearoa’s identity, it also acts as a fundraiser to help further the organisation’s work - alongside the Arts Foundation's Digital Auction, supported by Art + Object, featuring 24 incredible lots.

On our radar? The ‘required reading’ with Arts Foundation Icon Bill Manhire, who will personally select 12 books over 12 months for the top bidder, and a private movie screening at The Civic with Arts Foundation Laureate Florian Habicht. And, fittingly following our dinner party, a luxury stay at Otahuna Lodge. The auction closes on Tuesday May 24 at 8pm.