About Us
Auckland Arts Festival is the region's biggest celebration of
arts and culture. The biennial Festival, which began in 2003,
celebrated its fifth birthday in March 2011 with a dazzling
line-up of more than 75 separate events involving over 500 artists
- concerts, productions, arts exhibitions, and programmes of
seminars, workshops and family activities.
The Festival's hallmark blend of serious, innovative work and
broad appeal events, plus an accessible ticketing policy, ensure
that it is a celebration for the whole region. Major Festival
events take place all across the city - in West Auckland, The North
Shore, and South Auckland and in the central city - as well as
site-specific sculptural works that respond to our unique
geography.
Since its inception, Auckland Arts Festival has built a
reputation for presenting top quality work from around the world,
including a spectacular fireworks display by pyrotechnic artists
Groupe F, theatrical masterworks by Japanese company Ishinha, and
the legendary Robert Lepage's company Ex Machina, and sell-out
cabaret sensation La Clique. The Festival prides itself on
developing and presenting the very best in New Zealand work,
including the magical 2009 theatre piece, The Arrival, which has
become an international success story, The Songmaker's Chair, by
Albert Wendt, and the Michael Parmenter retrospective,
Commotion.
Auckland Arts Festival is governed by the Auckland Festival
Trust, a board chaired by Victoria Carter. Trustees are Rick
Carlyon, Roger MacDonnell, Toni Millar, Jim Moser, John Judge,
Heather Shotter, Fred Ward, and Vena Crawley. The Festival's
executive team is Artistic Director Carla van Zon, CEO David Inns,
Associate Director Mark Burlace, Business & Finance Manager
Shona Roberts and Marketing & Development Director Rachel
Morriss-Jarvis.
sponsorship
Sponsorship is crucial to presenting an event of this size.
Major Sponsors and Funders currently include Core Funder:
Auckland Council; Gold Sponsors: New Zealand Post Group, TV3 and
Colenso BBDO; Key Funding Partners: Creative New Zealand, ASB
Community Trust, The Lion Foundation, Pub Charity, THE EDGE and
Heart of the City; Silver Sponsors: Westpac, Auckland Airport, The
Radio Network and Stoneleigh; Bronze Sponsors:
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Formica, Wilson Parking, Russell McVeagh
and OGGI.
View our 2011 Partners and Supporters here