Airing time: Your choice, on-demand
A community arts radio show that challenges the belief that the arts are exclusive.
Sugar Loafing Arts Cast showcases the diversity of arts in Taranaki and beyond. Host Mikaela Nyman interviews artists, creative makers, writers and curators, and delves into art ideas and mediums, discussing a wide range of themes, such as decolonisation in New Zealand and Pacific art and literature, how to find inspiration, and the beauty of collaboration with other creative souls across art disciplines.
The fundamental idea of this podcast is to showcase arts and creativity and to inspire. Do you have a creative passion or want to share your ideas? Feel free to contact Mikaela on [email protected]
Podcasts
Click on the title of an episode to listen
Community Quilt
Mikaela talks to quilters Leslie Ault, Ruth Pfister and Claire Patten, who worked on the ‘TaranakiAPart Together’ quilt, a community lockdown 2020 project that is showing in our ARTspace in January.
Duration: 00:56:36 | Date: 31 December, 2022
Teresa Peters
Contemporary ceramicist Teresa Peters’ acclaimed work exists as solid clay objects and in digital video form. In 2021 she won the Portage Ceramic Awards and this year she’s a finalist. Her work TIME CRYSTAL is on show at Te Uru art gallery until 5 March 2023. Check out her exhibition ‘Ground Zero’ with Maree Horner at the Contemporary Art Space Taranaki!
Duration: 1:00:18 | Date: 24 December, 2022
NZ Miniature Enthusiasts
Welcome into these beautiful homes – for seriously tiny inhabitants! Mikaela speaks to Taranaki members of the NZ Association of Miniature Enthusiasts – Maureen Holmes-Woods, Jo Cross, Shelley Young and Mary McCaffery about their passion, art and craft.
Duration: 00:59:48 | Date: 17 December, 2022
Sukena Shah
Sukena Shah was awarded the George Mason Visual Arts Scholarship this year for her painting ‘To be a Brown Woman’, a stunning piece that’s part of her Year 13 art portfolio at New Plymouth Girls High School. Drawing on her Pakistani heritage, Sukena’s art offers a critical examination of the experience of women in post-colonial South Asia through a young artist’s eyes.
Duration: 00:56:56 | Date: 10 December, 2022
Jan Huijbers
Jan Huijbers is the ART Space artist for December. Check out his art inspired by nature’s design and oceanic creatures. Jan grew up in Zundert where Van Gogh was born.
Duration: 00:28:07 | Date: 3 December, 2022
Shona Edwards
Theatre is Shona Edwards’s passion; she also writes under the name Shona M. Wilson. Shona’s comedy ‘Golding Girls’ which opens on 23 Nov is the last play she will be directing for New Plymouth’s Little Theatre before moving to Whanganui. Mikaela talks to Shona about writing scripts and bringing them to life on the theatre stage.
Duration: 00:57:30 | Date: 19 November, 2022
John Schumacher
Artist and picture framer John Schumacher is a keen tramper, who finds inspiration in nature, science and poetry. His joyful, abstract oil pastels are on show in the ART Space in the Top Town mall throughout November.
Duration: 00:59:28 | Date: 12 November, 2022
Andrea Connor
Andrea Connor uses layers of acrylic paint to convey the patterns of nature in her semi-abstract art. Andrea is also skilled at carving and sculpting bone and stone. We talk about some of the challenges she’s dealt with over the years, including as a participant in the biannual Te Kupenga Stone Sculpture Symposium in New Plymouth
Duration: 00:46:51 | Date: 5 November, 2022
Rosemary Petterson
Mikaela talks to Ōakura artist Rosemary Petterson about sculpture commissions, her work on film sets, and her colourful sculptural windows ‘Love, Joy and Hope’ featured in Auckland’s 2022 Heart of the City’s celebration of spring. Currently, Rosemary is working with tamariki on a large mural for Te Pi’ipi’inga Kakano Mai / Rangiatea Kura Kaupapa Māori in Spotswood that will be unveiled at the school’s 30th birthday celebrations in November.
Duration: 00:54:19 | Date: 29 October, 2022
Floral Arts Society
Janine Duff and Christine Gordon talk to Mikaela about the upcoming New Plymouth Floral Art Awards. This year, floral artists have joined up with the Embroiderers’ Guild on the theme ‘Environmental elements. We talk about foraging, what revolutionized floral art, and the elements of composition that make up a spectacular piece. This year’s award exhibition can be viewed at the Beach St Hall in Fitzroy on Saturday 29 Oct, coinciding with the Taranaki Garden Festival and Arts Trail.
Duration: 00:53:14 | Date: 22 October, 2022
Paul and Matt
Paul Coulton of Huatoki Creatives and Matt Sturgess of String Studios are our ART space artists for October. Come and check out Paul’s copper art and Matt’s hand-built guitars (electric and acoustic) in the ART Space until the end of this month. Paul and Matt have also been writing and performing blues for over 40 years, most recently as Hoos Blues.
Duration: 00:51:42 | Date: 15 October, 2022
Taranaki National Arts Awards 2022
Taranaki National Arts Awards celebrates its 20th anniversary this year (last year was canceled). Mikaela talks to TNAA Chair Megan Symons and artist Christine Byrnes about the Awards ceremony on 28 Oct that promises to be a cracker event! Volunteers wanted! The exhibition closes on 6 Nov.
Duration: 00:54:38 | Date: 8 October, 2022
NZ Society of Authors Taranaki Roadshow Part 2
Listen to part 2 of a korero with Witi Ihimaera and Vanda Symon from the inaugural NZ Society of Authors Taranaki Roadshow held in September 2022 in New Plymouth. Witi was the first Māori novelist to be published in Aotearoa, and 2022 marks 50 years since the publication of his first book Pounamu, Pounamu.
Duration: 00:39:22 | Date: 1 October, 2022
NZ Society of Authors Taranaki Roadshow Part 1
Listen to part 1 of a korero with Witi Ihimaera and Vanda Symon from the inaugural NZ Society of Authors Taranaki Roadshow held in September 2022 in New Plymouth. Witi was the first Māori novelist to be published in Aotearoa, and 2022 marks 50 years since the publication of his first book Pounamu, Pounamu.
Duration: 00:45:33 | Date: 24 September, 2022
Pasha Clothier
Pasha Clothier presents an interconnected world view, typical of Polynesia, in her art and writing. Pasha traces her whakapapa to the tiny island of Hitiaurevareva (the Tahitian traditional name), colonised as Pitcairn Island. We talk about plants, connections across time and space, the value of indigenous knowledge, whales, cosmos, and listen to some intriguing sounds.
Duration: 1:00:02 | Date: 17 September, 2022
Margret Hands
Margaret Hands is our ART space artist for September and works in soft pastels (chalk pastel). Her art practice keeps her in a peaceful and playful space, while Taranaki beaches and bush offers a springboard for her imagination, sometimes resulting in fantastical creatures. She’s working towards self-publishing her pictorial art journey. Check out her work until end of September.
Duration: 00:49:28 | Date: 10 September, 2022
Tabatha Forbes
“Gardeners are the ultimate artists,” says artist Tabatha Forbes when Mikaela visits Forbes & Flay studio gallery in Ōpunake. We talk about sound art, Elam, botanical art and the workshop in botanical drawing Tabatha will hold at Puketarata in Hāwera during the Taranaki Garden Festival.
Duration: 00:53:20 | Date: 3 September, 2022
Francis Salole
Paekākāriki artist Francis Salole has many creative strings on his bow. Mikaela caught up with Francis at From out of the blue studio gallery in Ōpunake. His exhibition “Blindspot” is a re-imagining and reassembling of his own work in cut-up and woven form. We talk about his 3 years in the company of dinosaurs, doing stop-motion clay animation for the award-winning Kiri and Lou TV-series, and why he took a break from art to train and work as a psychiatric nurse.
Duration: 00:56:58 | Date: 27 August, 2022
Alegria Latin Dance
It’s long been a dream of 2 working mums, both dancers, to start New Plymouth’s first dance school dedicated solely to teaching popular Latino styles. Jodie Leach and Yanita Hall, co-founders of Alegria Latin Dance, talk about their passion and why dance and the power of dance to foster physical and mental well-being and social connections
Duration: 00:52:45 | Date: 20 August, 2022
Pip White
This week Mikaela talks to Pip White, a keen photographer and the ART Space artist for August, and to Elaine Rollins from Govett Brewster Art Gallery about what contemporary art is, and how the community can engage and take part in this ongoing conversation.
Duration: 00:51:02 | Date: 13 August, 2022
Kim Seng - Dark Days Tattoo
Talented tattoo artist Kim Seng of Dark Days Tattoo talks to Mikaela about his art and passion on the Sugar Loafing Arts Cast, and all the care and thought that goes into his designs that draw inspiration from Japanese motifs. Check out his work on www.darkdays.co.nz and on Facebook and Instagram @darkdaystattoo.
Duration: 00:46:49 | Date: 6 August, 2022
Fibre Ed 2022
Beth Pottinger-Hockings from Taranaki Creative Fibre talks about FibreEd 2022 that showcased knitting, felting, crocheting, weaving and spinning alongside work celebrating harakeke (flax). Some of the artefacts we discuss include the wall hangings ‘Basket of Skills’ by New Plymouth Creative Fibre and ‘Taranaki Coast’ by Waitara Fibre Fanatics, a harakeke cloak, some beautiful felted coats, and Beth’s felted purse.
Duration: 00:42:58 | Date: 30 July, 2022
Mokau Bone Carving
Mikaela talks to inspirational bone carvers Mike Brown and Riki Osborne from Mokau Bone Carving about their passion for genuine, handcrafted New Zealand art. We discuss the thinking that goes into designs, and how to source and carve bone in culturally respectable ways.
Duration: 00:49:14 | Date: 23 July, 2022
Amy Houston
Mikaela talks to Amy Houston, whose exhibition ‘Shallow Roots’ is showing in our ART Space throughout the month of July. We discuss the practicalities of being a travelling artist and Amy’s shift away from large oil pastels to a digital canvas.
Duration: 00:58:13 | Date: 16 July, 2022
Meet the Host
Michelle Bent talks to author and host of SugarLoafing, Mikaela Nyman about her ongoing collaboration with women writers in Vanuatu, her 2020 novel Sado set after the 2015 Tropical cyclone Pam, and the first ever Vanuatu Women’s Anthology, Sista Stanap Strong! that Mikaela co-edited with Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen to commemorate Vanuatu’s 40th anniversary of independence. Singer-songwriter Joan Niras from Tanna features
Duration: 00:58:12 | Date: 9 July, 2022
Mulga Bore Hard Rock Band
Seven indigenous students from Mulga Bore School in the rural Northern Territory formed a rock band to audition for a competition - and went on to win the event, taking out the Alice Springs Battle of the School Bands. Pesala Brown (Debbie Pearce) from Taranaki is a Teaching Principal at the Mulga Bore School. We’ll hear some talented young indigenous musicians and about life in the Australian outback.
Duration: 1:00:01 | Date: 2 July, 2022
Charlotte Giblin
This week Mikaela interviews Charlotte Giblin, artist and art teacher, who has just returned from exhibiting in Nelson and Hamilton. We talk about where Charlotte Giblin finds inspiration for her ever-evolving arts practice, about the importance of inviting and receiving feedback (positive and negative), and about her forthcoming book that draws on her own inspirational journey from fear to trust.
Duration: 1:00:01 | Date: 25 June, 2022
Amir Foladi
Mikaela Nyman in conversation with Amir Foladi about the importance of culture, art and peace for a community affected by generations of persecution and war. Amir Foladi belongs to Afghanistan’s Hazara minority and recently came to Aotearoa as a refugee. In the past, he worked for the Aga Khan Foundation with professional development for NGOs, culture, heritage and eco-tourism in Bamyan province, supported by New Zealand.
Duration: 00:57:08 | Date: 18 June, 2022
Helen Mays
This week Mikaela interviews Helen Mays, whose exhibition “A play on words, words at play” is showing in our ART space throughout the month of June. We talk about Helen’s exploration of her thoughts and the world around her through collage and words, found materials, landscape and colour.
Duration: 00:54:43 | Date: 11 June, 2022
Shelly Frank
Alice interviews Taranaki Artist, Shelly Frank whose painted landscapes were recently on display at the Access Radio Taranaki ARTspace.
Duration: 00:54:43 | Date: 4 June, 2022
Mary MacGregor Reid
Auckland-based artist Mary MacGregor Reid whose show celestial bodies, a multi-channel video installation opened at Contemporary Art Space recently.
Duration: 00:59:06 | Date: 14 May, 2022
Jennifer Halli
Taranaki artist Jennifer Halli has set up an art space project Might Could on Currie Street.
Duration: 00:57:26 | Date: 30 April, 2022
Suzan Kostanich
This week Alice speaks to Taranaki artist Suzan Kostanich who is pushing the boundaries with felt and paper.
Duration: 00:54:22 | Date: 16 April, 2022
Isla Fabu
This week I interview artist Isla Fabu whose exhibition Beauty and the Beast - A selection of works exploring the space beyond dualistic perceptions - is on show at From out of the blue studio gallery, Opunake.
Duration: 00:59:13 | Date: 26 March, 2022
Laura Campbell
This week I speak to new Percy Thomson Gallery Director Laura Campbell who took over the reins from Rhonda Bunyan earlier in the year.
Duration: 00:54:46 | Date: 19 March, 2022
Joni Murphy
Professional Taranaki Artist Joni Murphy talks about her passion for painting and recent changes within her practice.
Duration: 00:54:46 | Date: 12 March, 2022
Jodi Naik
This week's interview is with Taranaki-based artist Jodi Naik who explores her connection to the depth and beauty of the natural world.
Duration: 00:46:17 | Date: 26 February, 2022
Fern Petrie
Fern speaks about her career as an artist in Australia and New Zealand and her drive to express and preserve the fragility of memory and time. Fern's intricate and symbolic paintings are a personal reinterpretation of Victorian cabinet cards and are a response to her deep fascination and connection to that period of history.
Duration: 00:59:52 | Date: 19 February, 2022
Geoffrey Young
A community arts radio show aims to take on the belief that the arts are exclusive.
Duration: 00:57:01 | Date: 12 February, 2022
John Hodgson
This weeks interview is with Taranaki based artist John Hodgson whose work is on display at Access Radio's exhibition space during February. John speaks about his time at art school as an older student as well as themes explored in his paintings.
Duration: 00:57:25 | Date: 5 February, 2022
Leben Young
Leben's show All That I Can Carry, opens tomorrow night at Contemporary Art Space, 74 Powderham Street at 5.30pm, all welcome.
Duration: 00:51:35 | Date: 29 January, 2022