Exhibition AUG 29 - NOV 9, 2026 The Adam Portraiture Awards 2026 Free VENUE: Whakaari The Adam Portraiture Award is Aotearoa New Zealand's premier award for painted portraiture. Presented biennially by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, the award has become one of the country's most significant and anticipated art prizes.
Performance OCT 5, 2026 AWE+ Scholars Showcase VENUE: Whakaari Celebrate the arrival of AWE 2026 into Tāhuna Queenstown with a free performance from the 2026 AWE Pettman Scholars Christine Jeon (cello) and Matthew Seinafo (piano) for this 45 minute showcase.
Performance OCT 5, 2026 Strung $70 adult, $25 student VENUE: Whakaari Welcoming internationally renowned pianist David Fung to the AWE stage for the first time, Strung traces connections across generations, where musical lines are passed, reshaped, and renewed. Part of the At the World's Edge Festival of Chamber music, this performance runs from 7:30 - 9pm.
Performance OCT 9, 2026 AWE+ Emerging Artist Showcase VENUE: Whakaari An AWE+ Free Performance showcasing our 2026 Emerging Artists and composer, this programme traces lines of friendship, place and musical inheritance. This free showcase runs from 4:45 - 5:30pm.
Talks OCT 9, 2026 Winterstellar: At the Edge of the Universe VENUE: Whakaari An AWE+ Free Talk from Emeritus Professor Brian J Boyle exploring why Otago is such a special place on the planet for astronomy. Experience the majesty of our night skies, with a little bit of astrophysics and cosmology thrown in. This talk runs from 6:30 - 7pm and is free to attend.
Performance OCT 9, 2026 Radiance $70 adult, $25 student VENUE: Whakaari Radiance explores music drawn along the threshold between presence and distance, memory and vastness. From the incomprehensible scale of deep space to the intimacy of nocturnal reflection, musical lines drift, suspend, and hover between what is present and what is remembered, what is near and what lies beyond the reach of human scale. Part of the At the World's Edge Festival of Chamber music, this performance runs from 7:30 - 9pm.
Workshops OCT 10, 2026 The Art of Words – a writing workshop $49 VENUE: Whakaari From Keats’ ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’ to Girl with a Pearl Earring starring Scarlett Johansson, art has long inspired screenwriters, poets and writers. Join poet, songwriter and editor Laura Williamson for a session set among, and inspired by, the finalists for The Adam Portraiture Award 2026. Workshop runs 1-4pm.
Performance OCT 11, 2026 The Line $70 adult, $25 student VENUE: Whakaari Te Atamira brings the festival to a close with The Line, a programme that traces music's most essential journey: from a single footprint in an empty landscape, through voices shaped by love, loss, and encounter, to a musical line forcibly rewritten by history, revealing music's enduring ability to connect us across time. Running for 90minutes, there are two performances of The Line: 2pm or 5pm.
