There really is no event like the Laureates (officially: the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Awards). Simultaneously inclusive and exclusive, it’s the one night of the year where it feels like the arts sector has been airdropped into a fantasy land: a night of true glamour, where arts and culture are not just valued in the time, respect and attention they are paid, but also – crucially – the compensation they are given.
Each year, up to 10 artists are anointed laureates by the Arts Foundation, and receive $30,000 to support their work. This year it was boosted to $35,000 thanks to a sponsor partnership, with eight awards honouring areas including design, Māori and Pasifika creatives, theatre and more.
Walking into the Kiri Te Kanawa centre on Friday night – and how nice it is to see one of Tāmaki’s great venues renamed after one of Aotearoa’s great artists – we were greeted by members of the board, before we milled around the floor with free wines and canapes.
Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of people who end up at this event: There are the kinds of people with the money to either sponsor the awards or pay for a ticket. We’ll call these people the haves – no shade to those people, their philanthropy is crucial to the running of the awards, and the Foundation in general. The sector needs the haves.
The other kind of people are the artists: the Laureates themselves, their supporters, “valued members of the sector”, and somehow people like me. I won’t be so churlish as to call these people the have-nots – it’s more like the have-sometimes. They’re the people who make up the foundation of the sector (not the Foundation itself – the word has two meanings, y’all). But this night is not only to award and reward. It’s also to acknowledge. To put a stake in the ground and say, these artists matter. The work they make matters.
These people are easiest to spot in the crowd, as you can see from the photos. When you give the sector the opportunity – or the challenge – to stand out, they damn well take it. (Personal favourites: former Laureate Tusiata Avia’s sequined red gown, Eve De Castro’s printed white dress, and this year’s Sir Roger Hall Theatre Award Laureate Miriama McDowell seeming to float in a turquoise number.)
Another reason there’s no event like the Laureates – where else would the night open with Tusiata Avia reading a new poem, holding space and taking shots like nobody’s business? The line that stays with me from this poem, which I sorely hope gets published for wider reading outside of Friday night (editor's note: it has, here on The Spinoff), is her simple declaration that, in lieu of having money to buy a house, “Poetry can be my house.” The clicks came from specific parts of the audience.
Let’s face it: we’re in a cossie living crisis. It’s no longer gauche to talk about money, it’s de rigueur. If you’re not reading about how much it costs to be a person, you’re not paying attention. It’s no surprise that money was top of mind on Friday night. It is a little bit every year, of course, but this year in particular reminded me again, and again, that the Foundation exists for one purpose: to turn the have-sometimes into the have-a-little-bit-more-oftens.
Money came up often. General manager Jessica Palalagi – as winning an MC as one could hope for – joked that the lavish party was the result of sponsors, not lavish spending. (To the 'union' that spends more time attacking arts and culture than being a union: look elsewhere for fuel for your 'hot' takes).
Another theme that came up was more heartwarming, yet no less key to the Foundation’s mission: support. Author Alison Wong, long overdue for this award (the Burr/Tatham Trust Award, which recognises an outstanding artist of any discipline), spoke of her family’s support. Composer Claire Cowan spoke of her queer whanau, while musician and composer Horomona Hono shared anecdotes about early support he received from by legend Moana Maniapoto.
Basically every Laureate emphasised that art does not happen in a vacuum. It doesn’t happen without artists being supported by the people who love them, whether that’s those within their home, or the ones sitting in various audiences across the country. To slightly reinterpret what Carin Wilson said, “We do not create in silence.”
There’s a reason why the biggest joy of the night was, as an arts sector person, looking around to see what members of my community were in attendance. I knew they wouldn’t have paid for a ticket, they’d be there supporting one of the winners in semi-secret (as the identities of these winners are fiercely guarded until the night of). I reckon I guessed at least three before the second glass of wine.
The biggest cheers came from these pockets of the audience, because they knew that this kind of recognition doesn’t come around often. There’s a particular joy about seeing a friend be acknowledged – and knowing for a fact they won’t have to worry about their rent for the next year. It’s a joy I wouldn’t wish on anybody (reliable, secure comfort is preferable!) but if you’ve ever been in that position, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Two sentences from the night sum it up well for me. The first, from one of the haves (again, no shade, we need you) taking a phone call at the urinal (pick your own emoji). “Not much, drinking at a work event, how are you?” I didn’t pick up the answer, but I got the gist.
The other, Laureate Miriama McDowell, smiling underneath a massive photo of herself, which I cannot imagine is a comfortable experience. “I’m never again going to align myself with the amount in my bank account.”
It’s hard for the arts not to be about money. It’s hard for anything not to be about money. But for one night, ironically made possible by a lot of goodwill (read: money), it’s nice to make it about the art. What we value. What we recognise.
The full list of winners:
Alison Wong received the Burr/Tatham Trust Award
Claire Cowan received the Joanna Hickman, Waiwetu Trust Award
Carin Wilson Kahui Whetu Ngā received the Crane Award gifted by the Crane Foundation
Horomona Horo received the Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Award gifted by Jillian Friedlander
Lonnie Hutchinson received the My ART Visual Arts Award gifted by Sonja and Glenn Hawkins
Miriama McDowell received the Sir Roger Hall Theatre Award
Saskia Leek received the Female Arts Practitioner Award gifted by Liz Aitken, Foggy Valley Aotearoa
Victor Rodger ONZM received the Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Arts Award gifted by Hall Cannon
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