Events

Feel the grass, kissing the wind.

Queerness is not new. This is a performance of our past, present and future beyond binary gender and sexuality. Through whakapapa we find our deepest roots in the natural world, where we ground ourselves and move freely as a queer abundance.

Please join us for a workshop with artists Connor Fitzgerald and Louie Zalk-Neale as part of their exhibition GLOSSY LEAF kiss.

Join us for a talk with Luke Shaw, Phoebe Hinchliff, and Nathan Pōhio. 

Exclusive live performances from E-Kasino's famous in house bands! 

Zine workshops will be held at Blue Oyster each Saturday from 11- 3pm for the duration of E-Kasino.

A discussion on alternative futures to capitalism, what a world without problem gambling might look like and where E-Kare got the inspiration for E-Kasino. With Lidia Grigorut, financial expert/Lipstick Socialist, and Sarah Campagnolo, Health Promoter at the Problem Gambling Foundation, chaired by E-Kare.

SPRING INTERLUDE is Martin Sagadin’s first feature drama film. After the New Zealand International Film Festival and a small self-distributed run around New Zealand, Blue Oyster is pleased to finally bring the film to Ōtepoti. This screening was originally organised as part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival in March but was postponed due to the lockdown.

Join us for a conversation between artists Katrina Beekhuis and Torben Tilly. Katrina will begin by speaking to her current exhibition Windows and her wider research practice followed by a discussion with Torben about their collaborative work radio/rain.

Join us for a screening of video work by Ōtepoti-based practitioners and celebrate the final week of TIME is Love. 

Blue Oyster is calling for proposals for an upcoming series of printed projects which fit inside an A5 envelope and will be distributed to subscribers via post. 

Applications close Friday 5 June, 4pm.

Thursday 6th June, 5:30pm - 6:30pm 
Blue Oyster Art Project Space
16 Dowling Street 
Free to attend, all welcome.

Join us for a free workshop with Boosted where you'll learn how to craft your arts project into a compelling story your community will want to back.

Exploring how to work within and beyond established formats such as the review, the interview and the essay, Intensive 2: Form and Voice considered the politics of how readers are addressed alongside the structure and development of texts.

Extended Conversations is a new programme for emerging art writers based in Aotearoa, co-convened by Enjoy Public Art Gallery and Blue Oyster Art Project Space. Part online publishing platform and part mentoring programme, this initiative will build, sustain and share dialogue between emerging participants and established writers throughout 2018.

Join Lana Lopesi (Editor-in-Chief and Visual Arts Co-Editor) & Rosabel Tan (Founding Editor and Director) of The Pantograph Punch in a conversation about critical art writing and reviewing. We will look at questions such as, what purpose does it serve? What does good art writing look like? Or for artists, how do you pitch your work to the critics?

Becky Richards and Blue Oyster seek interested contributors to enable the generation of fresh, round forms and thoughts. You are warmly invited to attend an open workshop, made up of a simple exercise focusing on organic roundness, and its intrinsic appeal.

Led by Taarati Taiaroa and Elisapeta Heta, Taharangi Hou is a three day wānanga that invites interested parties to come together under the rising of Matariki/Puaka to propose, explore, discuss and dissect key contemporary Māori art texts in relation to emerging arts practice and three key spaces in Dunedin.

THIS CLOUD IS QUEERING! is a community dance project by val smith based around a process of mapping queer and trans experiences of public space across Dunedin city. 

[Supported by the 2016 Dunedin Fringe Festival] Artists, Performance artists, enthusiasts, audience members and passersby alike were welcome to participate in any capacity over the duration of the workshop at the Blue Oyster, which eventually led to all participants becoming turquoise over three stages with a personal temporary transformation.

What role does writing play in your professional practice? How can you approach editing so it's constructive and collaborative? Ever wondered what an en-dash is, and when to use one?

Led by contemporary Maori art curator Megan Tamati-Quennell (Ngai Tahu and Te Atiawa), this workshop designed to bring artists, writers and creatives wanting to engage with Maori art, writing or curatorial practice together during the rising of Matariki/Puaka.

What does community engagement mean to you? What is a community practice? What does local mean today? A workshop exploring, connecting and localising the art making process. Lead by Amiria Puia-Taylor, 2014 CNZ Pacifika Intern at Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust.

How would you approach building a professional art practice? What is involved in developing yourself as an emerging art practitioner? A workshop on developing your skills, resources and experiences as an artist. Presenters: Ruth Watson and Melanie Oliver.