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CollaboratioNZ
Creating Together. Learning Together. Sharing Together.
Testimonials
After meeting several artists from New Zealand at our Hawaii collaboration. I was so inspired and determined to travel to Aotearoa. My dream came true in 2025. I was able to join and collaborate at Whangarei Head! Having the opportunity to meet the Glass artist of your community, as well as collaborate for a full week with the amazing artist of many medium in your country has been the best of times and lasting of influences. Connections to Hawaii and its culture through weaving, pattern used in wood, and simply connecting as friends and art family we can create anything we set our minds too. More importantly, we take this influence into our artwork that we do in our own lives and community and continue evolving in the process.
Evan Jenkins, Hawaii, 2025
I had heard great things about collaborationz from a friend who had attended the 2021 event, it was everything he said and more when I attended in 2023. The thing that stood out to me was the other artists ability to turn recycled materials into works of art, having been a scrap metal artist for years I thought I knew all the tricks but I definitely took new skills and techniques away with me which I now put into my own work.
Nathan Hull, Taranaki, NZ, 2023
First one was 2023.... Sid Ware told me it would change my life.. didn't quite realise at the time he was right... fine work as ever Sid😁. I had no clue what I got myself into.. completely overwhelmed and in awe of the talent and items being made... took a while to to work out what was happening but then started working on a pūkāea and it all of sudden seemed to made sense. Seriously epic people... made a week I will never forget!
Round two 2025, committee, chaos more epic people, another pūkāea ... if I allowed back... sign me up for the next one!!!
Simon Morling, Northland, NZ, 2025 & 2023
I was lucky enough to attend Collaboration NZ once, 2021—called in last minute thanks to COVID reshuffles, and what a gift that turned out to be.
A few unexpected blips along the way, but it ended up being one of the most inspiring and genuinely life-changing experiences. It felt like being back on set - surrounded by insanely talented creatives, fully immersed in the process, just pure artistry and connection. If everyday life felt like that, I’d be all in without hesitation.
I left feeling inspired, understood, and truly valued in my craft. I haven’t made it back since (now based in Australia), but it’s firmly on my list. Super grateful to have experienced it.
Shellyann Matiu, Northland, NZ, 2021
I love our collab and it made a huge difference feeling like a real artist amongst all others with wild ideas. So good to embrace other arts forms.
The location is awesome with a sense of being in a holiday paradise with the beach next to it. Hans, one of the original members, invited me many moons ago but I did not take up the opportunity to my later regret.
March every second year is blocked in my calendar. Cannot wait and already have a stash for the resource table.
Elke Radewald, Northland, NZ, 2025
More skills, more practices, more collaboration, more community - you name it, there's more of it!
Melissa Reve, Auckland, NZ, 2023
G’day you remarkable people...That Collab was my best Collab yet...I want to say a heartfelt thanks for all you each put into making it work so well.
What happens in Whangarei is stimulating and exhilarating and challenging and inspiring and utterly invaluable. And I know that just about all the participants really do appreciate the amount of work done by the few that enable it...
In any case thank you all so very much for Collab 2015
Richard, Brisbane, Australia, 2015
This is a big THANK YOU to the organizing committee which did such a great job with this year's collaboration, both in making me feel particularly welcome, but also in pulling off, yet again, such a wonderful event. I know how much work goes into this from a planning perspective (as we already enter into preparations for Emma 2016), and all the glitches that inevitably come up that we participants don't ever see. It was such a pleasure to come in as a participant and just enjoy! Your generosity was totally unexpected and appreciated beyond measure!
I just wanted to mention how much I enjoyed the Maori greeting ceremony, because this set a tone of tolerance, community and caring, as well as a slightly exotic sense of mystery and trust (as I understood very little of what was actually spoken!) Creativity, when it is allowed to blossom, involves all of the above and I have come home refreshed and eager to get back to work after such a fun and creative 'shot in the arm' (although I didn't get any tattoos hahaha!)
So please accept my sincere and very deep felt thanks.
Miranda Jones, 2015
There are no combinations of words that really do the experience of CollaboratioNZ justice…but you guys already know that. On our return home from Mt Manaia we chatted at lightning speed, non-stop for about 11 hours of driving, our brains overflowing with ideas, insights, learnings and opportunities....
...We have shared our story and energy that has been surged from CollaboratioNZ to others in our community - we have talked about you all, your skills, your expertise, your tools, your support, your kindness, your friendship and your love through the act of making together. People have been in awe. We have showed them the video and they are transfixed...
...Life changing it has been been and we are only a month since we left Collab23!!! Our new lens and energy has provided us with the courage to say ‘Yes’ to new opportunities. Yes to bigger sculptures. Yes to ideas we have had for years. Yes to our own resource table…..oh, it’s looking pretty good…we are happy to share
Most recently (like, yesterday!) We’ve said Yes to a new space!
Your support, encouragement, humour and the fact that we feel very much part of a family has meant that we have been able to action the ideas and thoughts we chatted non-stop about on our way home from Mt Manaia.
We have signed a lease for a workshop that will enable us to have a gallery space, a sculpture garden and hold events/mash-ups for our local community to get them fired up, just as you have for us! Thank you Collaborationz family.
Katie & Amy, NZ, 2023
CollaboratioNZ was a wonderful experience that opened my eyes to working with different media and the use of my media style in conjunction with other creatives. Many different influences were available, both in media types but also through learning from international artists who had exposure to several different styles of cultural crafting. It was an informative, absorbing and wonderfully craft enhancing experience. The collaborative atmosphere was a joy to be part of. Share it to the world.
Raewyn Rouse, NZ
My experience with CollaboratioNZ all started with a nomination from my tutors at Northtec Whangarei as a graduation prize. It was a truly unique and creative experience that I'll always appreciate. With 70 artists coming together, the ideas were endless, and the safe environment allowed us to learn and grow. It's had a profound impact on my art practice, sparking new ideas and connections that will last a lifetime.
Kat Batchelor, NZ
I was honored to be invited on scholarship to be a participant in the blacksmithing area for CollaboratioNZ 2025. As a participant in many other international collaborations, the one in Aotearoa has been on my dream list for years. The site and accommodations were wonderful as was the food provided, especially since I have food restrictions... I felt well taken care of in that way; we work long hard days at these events, especially in the metal area, so eating a well balanced meal is important to me to maintain the stamina needed to produce artwork in an unfamiliar setting.
I also felt that the organizers did a great job given the immense amount of work it takes to organize and produce these events. Our work areas were set up well and everyone had ample space to work.
But my favorite part of these collaboration events is getting to meet and work with artists from other parts of the world and other cultures. I absolutely loved the chance to work with so many talented Maori artists who have become dear friends since. The bonds made through making art together are some of the strongest bonds I've experienced.
Lisa Geertsen, Firelight Forge, Seattle, WA, 2025
...Luckily I had received a grant from the UK Association of Woodturners to attend the NZ Collab, and as Graeme Priddle and Rolly Munro had been two of my fellow residents at the International Turning Exchange in 2000, it was a no-brainer to go there, having never visited NZ before.
The Collab was held at this stunning location overlooking Whangerai Bay, and I already knew many of the residents. One of them was an artist who I'd briefly met in Emma Lake, - Kim Kelzer, with whom I had slight interaction during the NZ event. However, on the last day, - the day of the auction, Kim and I climbed the sacred mountain before heading into town for the auction, and found we had many things in common. It turned out that we were both planning to spend another couple of weeks exploring NZ after it was over, and agreed to travel together, as I had already booked a rental car....!
Seems like we had really hit it off, so at the airport we were saying, 'yes, I'd love to come to Washington state', and ' sure I'll come check out Wales" and so started a 5 year long-distance relationship between Anglesey, Wales and Whidbey Island, with trips to Europe and Ireland, resulting in my moving to Whidbey Island in 2010, marrying Kim, and life has been GREAT ever since. So thanks NZ Collab - you changed my life for the better and I so grateful......16 years and still going strong!!!!
Michael Scott, Washington, Attended 2005
I was new to the Whangārei art scene at the time...2021. Covid restrictions meant lots of last minute cancellations. A few days before the event kicked off, I got the call up. I said yep, keen, but I had no idea what CollaboratioNZ New Zealand was about.
I turned up with a trailer load of gear (machines and tools) and found out there was a marquee full of Dustmakers gear. It was utter madness!! Paul Olson and I had a marquee to ourselves down the bottom... where all the rainwater from the storm would end up.
There were so many weirdos there and I knew I found my gig and my tribe ✊🏽. I was hooked. I learned heaps!! Not just as a dustmaker, I learned to back myself, to go bigger, tutu hard! I can remember a few of the pieces I have collaborated on, many I have forgotten. But I will never forget the people! So many friendships are forged at CollaboratioNZ, my tribe, my whanau, my ohana ❤️.
Mike Paora, Whangārei, NZ, 2021
I just wanted to say how much I have appreciated the two CollaboratioNZ events I have attended (2021 and 2025).
It’s hard to find the right words to describe how important CollaboratioNZ has been for me in my journey to become a wood artist and sculptor. Even as a beginning woodturner, I gravitated towards the artistic side of woodturning, however when I went to my first Collab, it felt like being rocketed into art! And I’ve never looked back!
Inspired by the Collab experiences, I have developed increasingly into art and sculpture. This has been a journey over a number of years. Some of the highlights of this journey have been exhibiting in the Hundertwasser Outdoor Exhibition and the Northland Sculpture Exhibition at the Quarry Gardens. The culmination of this journey, so far, was being chosen (together with my wife, Sarah) to exhibit at NZ Sculpture on Shore in 2025.
Collab opened my mind to a myriad of new ideas and to the advantages of collaborating with other artists...
...CollaboratioNZ is a unique experience. It is 10 days of designing, thinking, talking and making art with up to 70 artists from around Aotearoa and around the world. It’s a pressure cooker experience where one is inevitably challenged to think outside the box and challenged to experiment with different media, techniques and ideas. It is the most amazing way to jump start anyone’s artistic development. You establish relationships with other artists and collaborative opportunities spring up.
Simon Peacey, NZ, 2021 & 2025
In comparison to similar events held internationally that I have attended, I have found the NZ “collab” as it is parochially known, to rival any I have attended abroad.
The formula is simple; artists are permitted to create in a totally unfettered way, works from raw materials provided by the hosts and other attending artists.
While there seems to be no structure in how things are created, incredibly beautiful pieces of art spring from totally unlikely eclectic associations within the attending group.
To have the chance to work with ‘top of their game’ international artists, who make time in their busy schedules to attend this event, is an amazing privilege.
I can’t stress enough the wonderful opportunity such contact with talented international artists affords people such as myself, and other kiwi artists who are lucky enough to attend.
Dr Lyonel Grant – renowned Maori carver
2009 Arts Foundation Laureate
Tena koutou,
I have for several years been an active participant in the bi-annual gatherings that attract both international and local artists. These events create an environment whereby practitioners of various disciplines come together and create unique works of art. The relationships developed are enduring and imbue a very strong sense of community amongst the participants.
Nga mihi
Alex Nathan ONZM
What an absolute delight to combine a travel across the globe from the US in 2023 with Auckland’s museums and a stint in the north at Collab NZ making in response to cultural learning, the landscape and community. With having a good case of wanderlust contrasting my solo studio existence, this was the very first time combining travel with actual making and not just sponging inspiration to take home. Offering up the objects made that captured this convergence to the auction benefiting the next collab brought it full circle. Forever grateful for the invite 😊
Lisa Klakulak, USA, 2023
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Whether you're an artist, supporter, funder, or visitor, you are warmly invited into our world of collaborative creation. Let’s continue building a future where artistic knowledge is shared, celebrated, and passed on - together.
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