Sunday 9 March 10:30am-5:30pm
FREE Event
1001 Spheres is a public sculpture by Chiara Corbelletto, dedicated to gender equality in Aotearoa New Zealand. The sculpture is located in the beautiful Monte Cecilia Park and is the catalyst for Art Day for Gender Equality.
The Arts House Trust in collaboration with 1001 Spheres project is celebrating International Women’s Day with an inspiring day of poetry, art, music and conversation. 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of International Women’s Day and is being celebrated globally with the campaign theme of ‘accelerate action’.
1001 Spheres sculpture was commissioned by Auckland Council to mark 125 Suffrage Whakatū Wāhine - the 125-year anniversary of women’s suffrage. Located in Monte Cecilia Park, this vibrant sculpture is a celebration of Aotearoa New Zealand’s evolving journey towards gender equality, diversity and empowerment.
1001 Spheres speaks to the theme of gender equality through several defining features. The vibrant corona of spheres at the core of the sculpture emanates energy and a joyfulness of spirit. It suggests the countless spheres of activity, influence and self-determination that everyone should be able and free to occupy, unrestricted by gender identity. Every component of the sculpture is designed with the language of circles, the ideal form to represent inclusivity and equality.
Art Day for Gender Equality has a great line-up events occurring at the site of 1001 Spheres sculpture in Monte Cecilia Park and at Pah Homestead.
10:30am: Start the day in a calm and mediative way with Ilenia and Giulia, founders of Art Yoga.
12:30pm: Gather at 1001 Spheres sculpture. Bring a rug and a picnic, or pre-order a lunchbox from Hill House Café and settle in for an afternoon of jubilant acapella singing and performance poetry. Pre-order your lunchbox here
1:00pm: A set list of uplifting songs performed by the fabulous SHE Choir
2:00pm: Award-winning poet Carrie Rudzinski hosts a dynamic poetry open mic.
4:00pm: Join us at Pah Homestead for cool refreshments and delicious antipasti followed by a lively panel discussion facilitated by Dr. Dina Jezdic, accompanying her is Elisapeta Heta, Lisa Beauchamp and Chantel Matthews.
Programme:
Art Yoga
Creative Self Expression
10:30am - 12:00pm
Sunday 9 March 2025
At 1001 Spheres sculpture
Monte Cecilia Park, Hillsborough
Registration Required: Register Now
Art Day for Gender Equality starts with a session of meditative Art Yoga facilitated by Ilenia Di Nicola & Giulia Mattioli.
Art Yoga is a holistic wellbeing practice based on freedom of artistic expression combined with meditation practice to promote self-discovery and empowerment.
The session will start with a meditation on equality to inspire connection with self and creative expression on the theme of gender identity and gender equality. The structure of the session includes time for participants to connect with each other, providing an opportunity to explore and express our creative process and to enhance one another.
Ilenia Di Nicola & Giulia Mattioli are the founders of Art Yoga in Aotearoa New Zealand. Originally from Italy, Ilenia and Giulia are both experienced art and yoga practitioners and qualified meditation teachers. Together they have developed a unique blend of meditation practice combined with art techniques to enable participants to discover their inner purpose and creative potential.
The Art Yoga workshop is free of charge and all materials are supplied. The session is limited to 30 participants. To ensure a place, please register here.
SHE Choir
Empowering Songs
1:00 - 2:00pm
Sunday 9 March 2025
At 1001 Spheres sculpture
Monte Cecilia Park, Hillsborough
SHE Choir are performing a set list of uplifting, empowering songs, all in beautiful three-part harmony.
SHE Choir Auckland is a collaborative community choir that’s part of a global network of choirs welcoming anyone who identifies as female or non-binary and loves to sing.
SHE Choir was founded in Manchester, England in 2010. SHE has since grown to become an inclusive and supportive international network of 14 choirs throughout the UK, Germany and New Zealand who continue to joyfully collaborate and share their love of music. All choirs contribute to a shared collection of original three-part arrangements of pop, rock, indie, R&B and classic hits.
SHE Choir Auckland was started in 2017 by Jos Franks, who arrived in Aotearoa having previously been a member of SHE Choir London. Several of the choir’s original members happily remain part of the group and today the vibrant feminist community has expanded to embrace 30-plus core singers who contribute to the choir’s functioning and have a blast performing at semi-regular gigs.
Equality Speaks
A Poetry Open Mic
2:00 - 3:30pm
Sunday 9 March 2025
At 1001 Spheres sculpture
Monte Cecilia Park, Hillsborough
Equality Speaks: A Poetry Open Mic is hosted and curated by award-winning feminist poet and performer Carrie Rudzinski.
This event brings together seasoned poets and emerging new voices from Tāmaki’s spoken word poetry community, exploring themes of identity, diversity, empowerment and gender, in a dynamic session of poetry performances.
Carrie Rudzinski is a poet, published author and teaching artist. She has won numerous awards in New Zealand and Internationally for her performance poetry and poetry theatre shows. She recently co-edited Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (Auckland University Press, 2023).
Jessie Fenton is a Poetry Idol winner, a New Zealand National Slam finalist, and a recipient of the Bernard Brown Literary Award. She has previously been published in Starling and Otago University's Manifesto.
Grace Iwashita-Taylor, breathing bloodlines of Samoa, England and Japan, is an artist of upu/words on the page, digital storytelling, and live performance. She is dedicated to carving, elevating, and holding spaces for storytellers of Te Moana nui a Kiwa.
Open Mic: Call Out for performers and emerging poets!
The emerging poets section will be curated and selected by Carrie Rudzinski
o Submit poems on themes of identity, diversity, empowerment, gender
o Performers will have 3 minutes for one longer poem or two shorter poems
o There are limited spots: submit your poem and brief bio to Carrie at equalityspeaks1001spheres@gmail.com
o Deadline to submit: 5pm Sunday 23 February 2025
Art + Gender Panel
4:00 - 5:30pm
At the Arts House Trust, Pah Homestead
Registration Required
A lively panel discussion exploring the role of artists, curators and art institutions in the broader gender equality conversation. The panel will be facilitated by Dr. Dina Jezdic, accompanying her is Elisapeta Heta, Lisa Beauchamp and Chantel Matthews
Facilitator
Dr. Dina Jezdic is an independent curator, art writer, and decolonial scholar. Her work critically examines the intersections of indigeneity, diaspora, and belonging, with a focus on structural inequities in gender, race, sexuality, and class. Her doctoral research, Decolonial Museum Practice Through Performance Art and Activation: A Collective Autoethnography, explores performance as a radical methodology for disrupting colonial narratives and catalysing institutional transformation.
Panelist
Elisapeta Heta is the Principal and leader of Waka Māia, a Māori design collective within Jasmax, which she co-founded in 2015 to bring a Māori voice to architecture. Elisapeta has contributed significantly to cultural design outcomes of major projects at Jasmax, such as the New Zealand Pavilion at Expo 2020 and City Rail Link. She is an advocate for change, speaking internationally to provide Māori and Pasifika perspectives on the importance of place to design and cultural identity. Elisapeta currently exhibiting her installation The Body of Wainuiātea at Ocean Space at the Venice Biennale.
Panelist
Lisa Beauchamp is Director and Curator of Contemporary Art at Gus Fisher Gallery, The University of Auckland/Waipapa Taumata Rau. With responsibility for developing the gallery’s programme of exhibitions, Lisa recently co-curated Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days, a major exhibition focusing on the artist, filmmaker and queer rights activist. She has just opened a new show of feminist video art at Gus Fisher Gallery titled Having it all, all, all including seminal works by Yoko Ono, Ana Mendieta, Pipilotti Rist and more. Guided by intersectional feminist frameworks, Lisa takes a fluid approach to curating with a strong commitment to the idea that galleries can be enjoyable, reflective and self-directed areas of experience.
Panelist
Chantel Matthews is a conceptual artist, writer and curator of Māori and English descent. Her artworks can be described as sculptural moments inspired by the ‘everyday’ whilst exploring her own subjectivity as a woman, mother, artist and wahine Māori. With a particular interest in how women/wāhine hold space, Chantel’s art /curatorial practice conceptually explores whanaungatanga (working together/relationship through shared experiences) and manaakitanga (supporting others) through kai kōrero, wānanga and collaboration. Over the past year, Chantel has created a digital magazine called HĀ TUA, dedicated to storytelling about people, art, and culture within Aotearoa and abroad. (Ngāti Hounuku, Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Ikaunahi, Tainui) Pakeha
Please register to this event here
