• Geoff Allen.
  • Dylan Kay.
  • Emily Summerville.
  • Amy Saunders.
  • Jessica Pearless.

Arts & Entertainment

We love the vibrancy that the arts, entertainment and events sectors bring to the North Shore. Covid-19 has made things really hard for this sector. Now we are open again and Covid restrictions are in the rear vision mirror, business in the arts and entertainment sectors is starting to blossom once again. We urge readers to get out and support them. Participate in their initiatives, go to their events and shows – they need us more than ever. For our focus on arts and entertainment we chatted with five key local leaders in the area during June.


Story telling, events and talking Fringe stuff with Geoff Allen at The Rose Centre

Geoff Allen manages Pitt Street Theatre, The Rose Centre and Kaitohu of Devonport Drama, a busy role that includes hosting community gatherings, performances, video shows, training sessions, parties, weddings, and business events. The Rose Centre has recently been announced as a satellite venue for the Auckland Fringe Festival happening in September, meaning that Geoff will be busy over the next few months! Geoff’s background is in performing arts since the mid-eighties including directing, writing and running a theatre company. Geoff chats to Channel Mag about the upcoming satellite activities for the Auckland Fringe Festival, what he enjoys about working at the Rose Centre and more.

Channel Magazine: What do you love about what you do?
Geoff Allen:
Ngā tāngata, ngā tāngata, the youth and storytelling in general.

CM: Have you got a local programme/event on soon that you’d like Channel readers to know about?
GA:
Yes, for the first time ever The Rose Centre Theatre is a satellite venue for the Auckland Fringe Festival in September which is really exciting.

CM: How have the last few years been with the pandemic?
GA:
As a writer, I'm used to being isolated but as a theatre manager and producer it’s been very hard. I had five weeks at the Rose when I started, then 12 weeks working from home.

CM: What’s coming up over the next year programme/event wise for you?
GA:
We continue to have youth musical theatre: Tim Bray, NYT, Glass Ceiling and Stage Antics. Company Theatre has The Thrill of Love and a return of God of Carnage. Penny Ashton brings 'Austen Found’. There’s a lot to see and experience here for the local community.

CM: What do you love about the Shore?
GA:
I loved in summer after work heading down to the beach for a swim and I love the community of people working to improve life on the peninsula.

Visit: www.rosecentre.co.nz


Perfecting the Guitar with Dylan Kay, Auckland Guitar School

Owner and teacher Dylan Kay set up Auckland Guitar School in 2012, when he moved to Auckland from the UK, and owns studios here in Takapuna and also in Howick. He’s been a guitarist for over 35 years and a professional guitar teacher for over 25 years. “My goal with Auckland Guitar School was to use my unique skills, experience and training to create a guitar school like no other, where students have fun and become good musicians who can think, create and experience what playing music is all about rather than just painting by numbers,” explains Dylan. He tells Channel Mag about why he loves his profession, the impact of the last few years and what’s coming up next.

Channel Magazine: What do you love about what you do?
Dylan Kay:
I get a real kick out of sharing my passion for guitar with others, helping them become great players in their own right is hugely rewarding.

CM: Have you got a local programme/event on soon that you’d like Channel readers to know about?
DK:
We’ve got our next big student showcase in October at Raye Freedman Arts Centre (over the other side of the bridge) that will involve a lot of our Shore-based students.

CM: How have the last few years been with the pandemic?
DK:
Like anywhere, we’ve had to find ways to weather the storm. Thankfully technology exists to help us, and we worked really hard to make it work for our guitarists. The lockdowns actually resulted in more people wanting to learn instruments so we’ve seen a fair number of new students which has been great.

CM: What’s coming up over the next year programme/event wise for you?
DK:
We have our big student showcase coming up but also plenty of regular in-house performance events too.

CM: What do you love about the Shore?
DK:
I love working on the Shore, it’s got a great feel and we have a bunch of great students. I know that we’re able to fill a real gap in the market for quality guitar education here and that makes me proud.

Visit: www.aucklandguitarschool.co.nz


Dancing happily ever after with Emily Summerville of Devonport School of Dance

Emily Summerville is the principal and owner of Devonport School of Dance. She has been dancing since the age of five and teaching dance for the last 15 years in various dance schools, primary schools and preschools in Timaru, Auckland and Melbourne. Emily trained at the Timaru Dance Studio, Auckland Academy of Dance and The Edge Performers School in Melbourne and moved to Auckland after high school. She then completed her Bachelor of Dance Degree at AUT University and her Royal Academy of Dance Registered Teacher qualification alongside this degree. Emily answered a few questions from Channel Mag about the school's upcoming event at the Bruce Mason Centre, the challenge of the last few years (including welcoming her baby nine weeks early!) and why she’s passionate about teaching dance.

Channel Magazine: What do you love about what you do?
Emily Summerville:
I love seeing how much joy dance brings to dancers of all ages. From teaching our littlest dancers at 16 months old to our Silver Swans. Seeing students progress with their dance skills throughout not only the year but every class is also very rewarding.

CM: Have you got a local programme/event on soon that you’d like Channel readers to know about?
ES:
This year we are presenting our annual show, ‘Dancing Happily Ever After’ on Saturday 12th November at the Bruce Mason Centre, showcasing the talents of our dancers performing a variety of ballet, jazz, contemporary, tap, lyrical, hip hop, musical theatre and acro dances.

CM: How have the last few years been with the pandemic?
ES:
The last few years have definitely been challenging with the pandemic (let alone adding my first baby – who arrived nine weeks early – into the mix!). As a business, we have learnt to adapt quickly to ensure we could keep offering dance classes. I have been so proud of our dancers' resilience and discipline, dancing online for a number of months. I am forever grateful to the community for their ongoing support of my small business and my wonderful teachers who have kept classes running. The pandemic has created a lot of extra administrative work and my focus has shifted to rebuilding the business.

CM: What’s coming up over the next year programme/event wise for you?
ES:
We have exams and performance medal awards in term three, competitions, our show and local performances including Friday After Five and Devonport Christmas Dance in The Park events. We continue to offer enrolments and free trial classes throughout the year.

CM: What do you love about the Shore?
ES:
The Shore is made up of communities of wonderful people! I feel privileged to be able to teach and share my passion of dance with so many talented, enthusiastic and hardworking dancers.

Visit: www.devonportschoolofdance.com


Winter events with Amy Saunders at Depot Artspace

Amy Saunders is the Depot Artspace General Manager, she has worked in the arts and cultural sector for 25 years and says she’s been spoiled to live and work between New Zealand and the UK for many years. She’s a Devonport local and lives with her husband who is Scottish and their two daughters, Isla (6) and Annie (4). Amy strongly believes in nurturing and supporting the creative sector and those who work in it and talks to Channel Mag this month about the busy season of winter events that they have coming up at Depot Artspace.

Channel Magazine: What do you love about your job?
Amy Saunders:
What I love most about my job is the amazing people I work with. In small organisations like ours, team is everything and our little gang of superstars are truly amazing. They’re kind, caring, thoughtful, creative, supportive and leaders in their field. We are very blessed and I am very grateful that they make each and every day special.

CM: Have you got a local programme/event on soon that you’d like Channel readers to know about?
AS:
We’ve got two great exhibitions coming up in July: one with emerging artist George Turner who is presenting Towards Equilibrium in the Central Gallery, showcasing a range of stunning virtually augmented landscapes; and Ecologies of Scale in the Street Front Gallery, a series of paintings and installations compiled from urban construction materials by Llenyd Price, Elise Lidgett and Michael Lowe. In August, we have our ever-popular Member’s Show which this year will take over the Central Gallery, so if you’re a maker get making and if you’re a buyer, mark it in your diary!

CM: How have the last few years been with the pandemic?
AS:
The pandemic has definitely been challenging in the sense that it threw so much up into the air that was familiar. We are now working very differently to how we were before the pandemic. It also put pressure on our teams constantly having to adapt to new and different ways of working but now I think we are so much more resilient and adaptable to how we work, so I guess it’s made us stronger in the end.

CM: What’s coming up over the next year programme/event wise for you?
AS:
We’re in the middle of a strategic review which is really exciting and will help us plan a lot for next year, including our exhibition programme, new development programmes in the recording studios and we’re really excited to be hosting more events outside of the regular gallery programme, so watch this space and come and have a chat if you want to pitch any ideas or get involved.

CM: What do you love about the Shore?
AS:
I love the sea and have always lived within walking distance to water. I think looking out to sea is a healthy reminder of how small we are as people on this planet and how much vastness lies beyond ourselves and our immediate shores. So what I love about living in Devonport and working at the Depot is the ability to think globally but act locally.

Visit: www.depotartspace.co.nz


The future of art looks bright for Jessica and Jonathan at Northart

Jonathan Organ and Jessica Pearless are the Co-Directors of Northart in Northcote, are Visual Artists and own Art Services Agency Paragon Matter. They are North Shore locals, with Jessica being born and raised in Devonport. The duo both attended Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. Over the past 25 years, they have both developed professional careers as artists in the visual arts as well as running leading art dealer galleries, art auction houses, and in public sculpture and arts advocacy organisations. The pair work together to create large scale sculptural installations that have been shown throughout Australasia. This month, Jessica talks to Channel Mag about Northart, a Northcote space with the strategic vision of becoming the North Shore’s leading contemporary public art facility.

Channel Mag: What do you love about what you do?
Jessica Pearless:
One of the most interesting aspects of working in the arts is the connections that you form with people, the artists, audiences and collectors. The arts are well served in other parts of Auckland and elsewhere on the North Shore, we are proudly representing arts and culture in the Kaipātiki area.

CM: Have you got a local programme/event on soon that you’d like Channel readers to know about?
JP:
We are currently working with a fantastic group of artists from around Aotearoa to bring quality art experiences to the public through Northart. In July, we will hold two dynamic exhibitions, one with Raglan based assemblage sculptor, Stuart Bridson; he uses found objects to create quirky and thought-provoking sculptures from unlikely combinations. Boy + Girl are a fascinating duo, two practitioners who work in design, film and artificial intelligence, who are presenting their first exhibition of lightboxes, film and photography in an art gallery. We’re looking forward to the conversations into NFTs, AI and the future of art with this show. At Northart, we have two large screens installed that display moving image and film based artworks, take a look the next time you’re in Northcote town centre.

CM: How have the last few years been with the pandemic? How has the pandemic impacted your role?
JP:
We commenced our Directorship at Northart a month before the first lockdown of 2020. This unprecedented scenario threw us a real challenge, which we met head on. It meant that we worked on Northart’s digital strategy and systems immediately, which positively impacted us towards future proofing and updating things like the gallery website, operational and accounting systems, a lot of the ‘behind the scenes’ pieces of work that go into running a public art gallery. We have worked closely with our artists throughout this period, often to reassure them that their work is important, valuable and brings so much to the wellbeing of our community.

CM: What’s coming up over the next year programme/event wise for you?
JP:
Our programme is curated on an annual basis. We do a ‘Call for Proposals’ around mid-year, when artists are invited to express their interest in exhibiting in a written proposal. For the remainder of 2022, we have a selection of amazing exhibitions, all between four to six weeks in length, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography and more. We are particularly excited about a large-scale exhibition of artwork by artists of Pasifika descent, which follows our two gallery exhibition of twelve Maori Women artists earlier this year, ‘Wahine Maori: The Art of Resistance’ which brought record numbers to the gallery due to the amazing group of highly respected artists included.  Alongside our exhibitions, we run artist-led workshops, member events, artist talks, professional practice workshops, openings and more.

CM: What do you love about the Shore?
JP:
The North Shore is a wonderful place to live and to raise children. We are particularly fond of our local beaches, cafes, and libraries. We see huge potential for Northart to continue to develop into the leading hub for contemporary art experiences, matching our city side counterparts so watch this space!

Visit: www.northart.co.nz