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The Ara Toi/Creative Partnerships team is here to supports art, creativity, & culture in Ōtepoti Dunedin. Message, call, or email if you’d like to chat.

Whether it’s slam poetry evenings, a hip-hop festival, or skiffle orchestra, we’re here to support Ōtepoti’s creative and cultural communities do what they do best by:

Providing advice, assistance, and information about local and national arts funding opportunities🗨️💬

Supporting the sustainable and strategic development of local arts organisations💡📑

Collaborating with creative professionals to

provide knowledge and skills-based wānaka, workshops, and resources for practitioners 🫱🏽‍🫲🏽

Working with other DCC teams to include arts and culture-friendly perspectives in their plans, policies, and
work programmes 👩‍💻

Managing the Ōtepoti Dunedin Community Gallery 🖼️

Profiling and promoting local activities and practitioners so that as many as possible know about the rich creative life of our city.🗣️🎨🪇💃🏽👯‍♂️🎭🎺✨

We're always happy to sit down and talk through any questions you have about your creative proposals and practice here in Ōtepoti.

10/06/2026

Kia ora anō koutou, e te kāhui whakaroko!
Approaching the end of te tau Māori, huddling round the fire as the frost sets in, but still tapping that foot to subterranean beats, it's Ōtepoti Hou.

And what a beautiful array of sounds available for our listening pleasure this week. A huge shout out to our incredibly venues:
.folk.club / Hanover Hall / ARC Brewing Co / Trinity College

📢 Did you have something coming up? Let us know.
✏️ Did we miss your show out? Drop it in the comments.

Ko te kupu Māori o te rā - wūru - wool

03/06/2026

Kia ora koutou

Auē, it’s fresh.
The Ōtepoti Hou vinyl/cassette/zine compilation dropped at the end of May - 10 magical unreleased songs, all curated, recorded, and mastered right here in Dunedin.
The compilation is available for free download right now.
Go to www.bandcamp/otepotihou.com to wrap your ears around it.

Then go check out all the ridiculously good local musicians taking to a stage near you this week.
What’s that sound? Ōtepoti Hou! Fresh music all around you.

📢 Did you have something coming up? Let us know.
✏️ Did we miss your show out? Drop it in the comments.

Maramataka
Thursday 4 June – Korekore Tuatahi
Friday 5 June – Korekore Rawea
Saturday 6 June – Korekore Whakapiri
Sunday 7 June – Takaroa-ā-mua

02/06/2026

Ara Toi are happy to share the new Ōtepoti Art Guide from our friends !

Kia ora! We are very excited to introduce the first ever online issue of Super Nice Art Guide, a super nice guide to Ōtepoti visual art events! While last month we managed to put our guide in print, we faced a couple of challenges this month and have had to hold off printing until our next issue. Fortunately, our excellent team managed to put together this super nice digital version! Next month we should be back on track with both a printed and online issue!

To make it easier to plan your next art gallery crawl, we’ve separated this month’s guide into four colour-coded categories/posts for you:
⭐ Openings
⭐ Upcoming exhibitions
⭐ Ongoing exhibitions
⭐ Workshops/talks.

Thank you so much for all the support,
Super Nice Art Guide :)

27/05/2026

🌬️ Catching the cool breeze of an early chilly morning it's ❄️ Ōtepoti Hou ❄️

🌌 As we see out the last weekend of NZ Music Month for 2026, we are listening and sharing all the incredible music coming out of our city and making it to as many gigs as possible!

🎶 NZ Music Month 🎶 is about highlighting what happens all year round. You – our music community – making new, exciting, challenging, and inspired music that becomes the soundtrack of our memories 📹

⏳ Head out this weekend and make the most of the many music options available:

💿 💿 💿 💿 💿 💿 💿 💿 💿 .folk.club 💿 💿 💿 .nz

🛸 Did you have something coming up? Let us know 📣

📸 images provided by 🙌🏽🙌🏽 from the Ōtepoti Hou Vinyl Launch, where , & performed and took our breath away ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Big arohanui also to our speakers on the night:

⚡
⚡
⚡ .stedman
⚡ Cath Andersen and Rachel Ashby from
⚡ and our very own Sean Norling

26/05/2026

🎨 Calling all arts & culture groups in Ōtepoti Dunedin!

If your organisation is working to strengthen the city's creative and cultural heart, the Arts & Culture Capability Fund - jointly run by Otago Community Trust and Dunedin City Council Aratoiotepoti - is here to support you.

Whether you're looking to build your organisational strength or take your creative vision further, this fund is designed with community in mind. Eligible organisations can apply for up to $7,500🌟

📅 Applications close 14th August 2026

For further info, head to our website at the link below:
https://www.oct.org.nz/funding/how-we-fund/capability-funding

25/05/2026

Tēnā koe e hoa 🥰
After many conversations, recording, mastering and mahi, the Ōtepoti Hou compilation has landed 🫶🏽👏🏽🙌🏽

We are so grateful to all the incredible humans who contributed their time, waiata, knowledge and expertise to this process, to create a truly unique collection that reflects the Ōtepoti sound in 2026 🎶

This project helped to realise the Ōtepoti Live Music implementation plan in a unique way that opened pathways, connected 🎙️musicians, 🎛️producers and 🎶mentors, and provides just a taste of the depth and scope of the music being made, recorded and shared in our city 🎹🎻🥁🎺🎸

In completing the pilot of Ōtepoti Hou, all those involved can take home a vinyl and cassette recording of the compilation, a zine containing bios of all those involved, a sticker and a t-shirt - all of which incorporate the designs of Kai Tahu artist Madison Kelly.

This project is for you too - our community - to listen and enjoy 💝

📲 Check out the bandcamp link in our bio for a free download of all ten songs

Big aroha to all the artists, mentors, and producers who made this compilation possible, go listen to the sound of our city e hoa, and happy 💿 NZ Music Month 💿
Check out the talented local musicians, throw them a like and keep up-to-date with the newest, freshest music as they are delivered:

✨
✨
✨
✨ Crash Out band
✨
✨ .band
✨ (CUCK)
✨
✨
✨

19/05/2026

Nau mai, hoki mai ki te ārahi o kā hua puoro o Ōtepoti!

Our second last week of – Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa, and the musical tohuka of this city have got a mammoth wiki lined up for us all - and giving you the update and downlow on all this bang, clang and shmang - it's Ōtepoti Hou!

E mihi nunui ana ki a koutou, kā whare puoro o te taone nei. A massive mihi to our wonderful venues that keep music alive and pumping in the city:
🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 .nz 🎯 .folk.club 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 .dunedin 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 🎯 Hanover Hall 🎯 Kings & Queens Performing Arts Centre 🎯 Castle 1 Lecture Theatre

Ko te kupu māori o te rā - mauwha - shrub

📣 Let us know if you've got cool stuff happening!
🗣️ If we've missed something, apologies! Chuck it in the comments below

Address

50 The Octagon
Dunedin

Website

https://www.dunedin.govt.nz/services/arts-and-culture

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