Vot­ing in the Fourth Annu­al Welling­ton­ista Awards is open from Decem­ber 1–15. Then come find out the results at our Awards Night at Mighty Mighty on Decem­ber 17!

To vote, vis­it this page.

For us, Art with a cap­i­tal A isn’t just about look­ing at a pic­ture in a frame and going, “Oh yes, nice use of colour there”. It’s got to be some­thing that you feel, that touch­es you metaphor­i­cal­ly and per­haps lit­er­al­ly, some­thing you can total­ly immerse your­self in. These expe­ri­ences were the epit­o­me of that feel­ing this year…

Out­door Knit: For bring­ing cre­ativ­i­ty and craft to some places that need­ed the love. Two of their most high-pro­file projects are the “It will all be OK” fence, and the fence of hearts. But their yarny gifts and events don’t stop there. They stunned every­one at the Cuba Street Car­ni­val with a day-long knit­ting fren­zy out­side the Bris­tol (and cheers to the coun­cil for let­ting it stay up so long.) Welling­ton is full of their lit­tle addi­tions. Just keep your eyes open for new projects. 

Page Black­ie Gallery: 2009 was the year deal­er gallery Page Black­ie (Vic­to­ria Street, oppo­site the library) assert­ed itself as an art force to be reck­oned with. A series of engag­ing shows and some wicked live gigs by the likes of Lawrence Ara­bia and the Welling­ton Inter­na­tion­al Ukelele Orches­tra have shown the gallery’s con­fi­dent approach. The high­light for 2009 was watch­ing Dick Frizzell and his wife play­ing their ukes and singing with the Orches­tra for his book launch at the gallery’s annu­al land­scape show. Recog­nised by _Dom Post_ review­er Mark Amery as behav­ing more like a pub­lic gallery, PB has raised the bar this year, and it’ll be inter­est­ing to see if oth­er deal­er gal­leries in town take note! They’ve even start­ed their own blog. 

Eroge­nous Tones: Chances are that you’ve read some slash fic­tion before, but have you ever had it read to you in a crazy Russ­ian-ish accent? No? Luck­i­ly Eroge­nous Tones exist in order to fill that void in your life. In the lush envi­rons of the Watusi, three attrac­tive young ladies will bring sto­ries about Uncle Jessie (aka John Sta­mos) tak­ing good care of the Olsen twins; of Madon­na and Brit­ney post-MTV kiss; or per­haps some­thing about Dr Phil’s foot fetish — or what­ev­er they might have found on the net that day. It’s uncom­fort­able, hilar­i­ous, and hope­ful­ly not at all erot­ic, and it’s def­i­nite­ly some­thing dif­fer­ent. It’s art. 

Yay­oi Kusama at City Gallery Welling­ton: The City Gallery need­ed some­thing spe­cial to kick off their made-over spaces, and Kusama’s dots cer­tain­ly deliv­ered a punch. By tak­ing over the façade and reach­ing out to the peo­ple of Welling­ton, the spots appealed to a wider range of peo­ple than the aver­age exhi­bi­tion, yet the exhi­bi­tion as a whole pro­vid­ed a more sub­tle and provoca­tive expe­ri­ence amid the mind-bend­ing colours. 

Plas­tic Maori Exhi­bi­tion at The­New­Dowse: Filled with plas­tic tiki, tuku­tuku pan­els made from com­put­er key­boards, and oth­er mash-ups of the mod­ern and the tra­di­tion­al, this exhi­bi­tion took us into the future of Maori design, and fea­tured a spe­cial appear­ance from NZ’s most famous plas­tic Maori – Manu from Playschool. The Boun­cy Marae week­end was pop­u­lar with kids of all ages.