Festival of New Art celebrates sixth season

The Manawatū Festival of New Arts produced by Associate Professor Angie Farrow continues at the Globe Theatre in Palmerston North this weekend.

For over a decade, Dr Farrow has produced and organised the festival that is held over two weekends biennially.

The festival kicked off at the Hokowhitu site last weekend with a cast of 40 people ranging in age from 16 to 60, the festival encompasses a raft of disciplines including theatre, dance, music, poetry and puppetry.

“The Festival of New Arts was started for two reasons,” she says. “To give emerging and established artists a forum for presenting their work and building their skills to expose new, cutting edge work to the community.”

She says it’s now multi-disciplinary and is a celebration of what can be achieved in the arts in a small community. “It started as my initiative but there are many people who make it happen and every year it gets better and better.”

Dr Farrow is devoted to growing emerging artists and giving the community a dose of creativity.

“Creative life makes us richer people. To see the difference it makes in young people is amazing to watch and be part of. This festival is a place not just to develop skills, but to build confidence and to celebrate community.”

Entry is $10 per person and the weekend’s performances at the Globe Theatre start at 7pm on Friday and Saturday, and at 2pm on Sunday.