If you love the arts and culture, you’ll find plenty to keep you busy at Victoria. From art to music, Māori cultural events to theatre and publishing to creative writing, the University’s credentials are impeccable.
On this page:
Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi
The Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi is a world-class public gallery, open to students, staff and visitors. It offers an annual programme of exhibitions and events that foster the understanding and practice of national and international visual art and culture.
Exhibitions are accompanied by lectures, performances and catalogue publications. Entrance is free and the Gallery is open Tuesday to Friday and on weekends.
The Adam Art Gallery also manages the University’s Art Collection, comprising over 240 New Zealand artworks on permanent display around campus.
Creative Writing
The University's International Institute of Modern Letters offers a range of creative writing courses and is also a centre of literary endeavour. Victoria graduates include Barbara Anderson, William Brandt, Kate Camp, Catherine Chidgey, Dinah Hawken, Kapka Kassabova, Anthony McCarten, Emily Perkins, Duncan Sarkies and Damien Wilkins.
On campus each year is Victoria’s Writer in Residence. Past Writers in Residence have included Maurice Gee, Fiona Kidman, Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera, Elizabeth Knox, Charlotte Randall, Briar Grace-Smith and James Brown. The 2008 Writer in Residence is David Geary.
The Institute offers a range of undergraduate creative writing courses and the MA in Creative Writing, and has affiliations with prestigious US writing programmes.
The Institute manages a number of awards, including the Prize in Modern Letters, a biennial award of $60,000 for emerging writers (won by novelist Carl Shuker in 2006) and the annual Schaeffer Award, won in 2005 by poet Alice Miller. With Te Mata Estate, the Institute supports the New Zealand Poet Laureate (currently Jenny Bornholdt). It also hosts the Michael Hirschfeld Director of Scriptwriting (currently Ken Duncum).
The Institute also hosts a number of online texts and journals, including the annual Best New Zealand Poems and Turbine.
Publishing
Literary creativity is fostered by two of the country’s notable literary publishing houses, Victoria University Press (VUP) and Wai-te-ata Press.
Founded in the 1970s, Victoria University Press is one of New Zealand’s leading publishers of new fiction, poetry and history. VUP titles often feature prominently in New Zealand’s top literary awards. Fiction authors include Barbara Anderson, Keri Hulme, Janet Frame, Damien Wilkins, Elizabeth Knox, Lloyd Jones, Emily Perkins, Catherine Chidgey and Nigel Cox. Among the poets published by VUP are Jenny Bornholdt, James Brown, Dinah Hawken, Chris Orsman and Bill Manhire. VUP can be contacted at address
The Wai-te-ata Press is a living printing, teaching and research facility which publishes limited-edition works by New Zealand writers and music scores using hand-set lead and wooden type on printing machinery dating back to 1813.
In 2001 the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre was set up to turn New Zealand literature into easily searchable documents. The centre also aims to become a repository of expertise and to encourage adherence to international standards for digitising and tagging electronic texts.
Māori
Māori arts and culture have a strong presence at Vic. Formal teaching occurs in the School of Māori Studies Te Kawa a Māui, and less formal teaching in Kapa Haka O Te Herenga Waka, which takes its name from the centre for Māoritanga on campus, Te Herenga Waka Marae.
Music
The New Zealand School of Music has the finest small concert auditorium in Wellington, the Adam Concert Room, which is used for rehearsals and free lunchtime concerts, seminars, concerts and masterclasses by visiting musicians. The University Orchestra, Choir and gamelan perform on and off campus.
The highly acclaimed New Zealand String Quartet is based at the School, and many performance teachers are drawn from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Museums
There are several museum collections on campus, which are used for study, teaching and research. The Classics Museum displays rare artefacts, including a 2,500-year-old Greek wine jug. And you can watch live tuatara, part of Victoria’s world-leading research programme, in the ‘tuatarium’ by the Overbridge (over Kelburn Parade).
Theatre
Vic’s strong dramatic tradition is evident in a number of campus productions every year, with the most widely-appreciated being the Drama Club's annual Summer Shakespeare. Staff and students from the School of English, Film, Theatre, and Media Studies, and the School of Architecture, are regularly involved in productions both on-campus and at Wellington's professional theatres.
Arts Festivals
Victoria has strong links with the New Zealand International Arts Festival – one of the "top ten" arts festivals in the world – held in Wellington every two years.