Meet your 2024 Springboard Award Recipients

The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi 2024 Springboard recipients have officially been revealed!

Six artists – each ready to take the plunge into a full-time arts career – with outstanding potential across a diverse range of arts disciplines. Along with a $15,000 gift, each recipient has been matched (with cupid-like consideration!) to a senior artist mentor from the Arts Foundation artist alumni and beyond. Mentors will also receive a $5,000 koha for their time.

The Arts Foundation Springboard packages are 100% funded through personal giving. Huge thanks to these generous arts backers who have made our 2024 Springboard Awards possible:

The Edgar Family, the Todd Trust, Te Runanga o Ngāi Tahu, Jamie and Ann Selkirk and Dr. Fiona Pardington with Starkwhite.

Meet your 2024 Springboard duos:

• Emily Parr (Moving Image), mentored by 2020 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Tanu Gago MNZM of FAFSWAG Collective (Interdisciplinary Arts). Emily receives the Springboard Award for Visual Arts funded by the Edgar family.
• Emma Hislop (Literature), mentored by 2005 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Icon Patricia Grace DCNZM QSO (Literature), Emma receives the Wai Toi-o-Moroki Award funded by Te Runanga o Ngāi Tahu.
• Flo Wilson (Music & Sonic Arts) mentored by 2008 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi New Generation recipient Jeff Henderson. Flo receives the Springboard Award gifted by The Todd Trust.
• Hash Perambalam (Film), mentor coming soon. Hash receives the Springboard Award for Film gifted by Jamie and Ann Selkirk.
• Joshua Faleatua and Tyler Carney (Dance, Film) mentored by 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate, Florian Habicht (film). Joshua and Tyler receive the Springboard Award generously gifted by the Edgar family.
• Louie Zalk–Neale (Toi Māori, Performance Art, Visual Arts) mentored by 2022 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Bridget Reweti of Mataaho Collective (Installation). Louie receivies the Springboard award for Visual Arts funded by 2011 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Dr. Fiona Pardington and Starkwhite.

What is Springboard all about?

“I feel like it creates a pathway where there isn't one. Normally you kind of just get into the arts and make it up as you go. The biggest value of this mentor-mentee thing is the relationship that you create – which then leads to ripple effects and other stuff. It’s also good for the mentors to see the issues that are still the same and to see where maybe you were, and to be able to offer a way through and be able to say ‘it's all right, this is normal, this is exactly as it should be – and you're going to get through this, you just have to stick at it’.”

– 2006 Arts Foundation Laureate and 2020 Springboard mentor, Oscar Kightley

How were our recipients selected?

Springboard called for nominations in November 2023, and an independent selection panel gathered late February 2024 to review the submissions received.

The selection panel, chaired by Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Trustees, Anne Noble and Tanea Heke, included:

• Nathan Pohio (Senior Curator – Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki)
• Melanie Oliver (Curator, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū)
• Samuel Holloway (Composer, Educator)
• Dolina Wehipeihana (Choreograoher, Co-Director – Tāwhiri)
• Chris Tse (Current New Zealand Poet Laureate)
• Ant Timpson (Film Producer & New Zealand Film Commission Board)
• James Gatt (Curator, Te Uru)

Emily Parr

Genre: Moving Image

Emily Parr (Ngāi Te Rangi, Moana, Pākehā) is an artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her moving-image practice stitches through time/ space, exploring systems of relation emerging from Te Moananui-a-Kiwa. Emily’s recent body of work on settler-indigenous relationships traverses oceans and centuries, seeking stories in archives and waters on haerenga to her ancestral homelands of Tauranga Moana, Sāmoa and Tonga. Her current research considers the responsibilities she has inherited through her ancestral legacies and, in particular, to her family’s collection held by museums.

Emily will be mentored by 2020 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Tanu Gago MNZM of FAFSWAG Collective.

Emily receives the Springboard Award for Visual Arts funded by the Edgar family.

Read more about Emily

Emma Hislop

Genre: Literature

Emma Hislop’s (Kāi Tahu) first book of short fiction, Ruin, was published in March 2023 with Te Herenga Waka University Press and longlisted for the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. She has a Masters in Creative Writing. In 2023 she was awarded the Michael King International Residency at Varuna House. Emma is part of Te Hā Taranaki, a collective for Māori writers, established in 2019. She is currently working on a novel.

Emma will be mentored by 2005 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Icon Patricia Grace DCNZM QSO.

Emma receives the Wai Toi-o-Moroki Award funded by Te Runanga o Ngāi Tahu.

Read more about Emma

Flo Wilson

Genre: Music & Sonic Arts

Flo Wilson is newly based in Berlin (DE) from their South Pacific home in Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland (NZ). Their diverse practice as an experimental electronic composer and producer spans choral-based performance, building immersive spatial AV installations, scoring for contemporary dance, and as a collaborator with songwriters.

Flo will be mentored by by 2008 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi New Generation recipient Jeff Henderson.

Flo receives the Springboard Award gifted by The Todd Trust.

Read more about Flo

Hash Perambalam

Genre: Film

Hash (Tamil, Eelam) is a filmmaker born and raised in Auckland. She graduated from the University of Auckland with a Masters in Screen Production (Drama Directing). Most recently, Hash wrote and directed The Rat King which received the Women’s Horror Short grant from the New Zealand Film Commission – the film is currently in post-production, and will be released in 2025. In 2023, Hash was a participant in the film intensive A Wave in The Ocean with Artistic Director Dame Jane Campion (2022 Arts Foundation Icon). Hash is currently writing and directing a short film under this programme before she moves into feature filmmaking.

Mentor: coming soon!
Hash receives the Springboard Award for Film gifted by Jamie and Ann Selkirk.

Read more about Hash

Louie Zalk-Neale

Genre: Toi Māori, Performance Art, Visual Arts

Louie Zalk-Neale (Ngāi Te Rangi, Pākehā) is a trans takatāpui artist who creates with the metamorphic power of body adornment. Entangled in the ecological webs of whakapapa, they immerse their audience in ceremonial performances, bringing queer visions of the past and future into the present moment. The practice of twisting taura tī kōuka (cabbage tree fibre rope) is a central pou in Louie’s mahi toi, which they often combine with discarded plastic and waste materials to form intricate adornments and sculptural objects used in performance.

Louie will be mentored by 2022 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Bridget Reweti of Mataaho Collective.

Louie receives the Springboard award for Visual Arts funded by 2011 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate Dr. Fiona Pardington and Starkwhite.

Read more about Louie

Joshua Faleatua and Tyler Carney

Genre: Dance, Film

Joshua Faleatua (Aotearoa, with ties to the village of LufiLufi in Samoa) and Tyler Carney-Faleatua (Sydney/Eora, with ties to India and Scotland) are the founders of Threading Frames, and work within the mediums of dance and film. Their work centres around the integration of dance into the digital landscape where their exploration lies in the intricate interplay between dance, storytelling and film. Joshua and Tyler’s curiosity and fascination with the human body as a vessel of expression propel this exploration, prompting them to consider how movement can be used as the primary narrative tool within the cinematic context.

Joshua and Tyler will be mentored by 2021 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate, Florian Habicht.

Joshua and Tyler receive the Springboard Award generously gifted by the Edgar family.

Read more about Joshua and Tyler