Creative Arts 6-week Course

Dr Dina Jezdic is an art critic, curator, and tauiwi decolonial scholar based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her work focuses on contemporary art and how artistic practices shape knowledge, challenge power, and connect to lived experience. She has worked across independent and international contexts, including as a Tate Intensive Fellow, and is widely published across Aotearoa, Australia, and the United States.

SESSION: Abstract: A Fresh Look at the Venice Biennale: What Art Is Telling Us About the World

Join Dina for a relaxed, behind-the-scenes look at the Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most exciting (and sometimes surprising) contemporary art events. I’ll be sharing impressions straight from my recent visit, including the buzz of the opening week, the artworks everyone is talking about, and a few unexpected moments along the way.

Together, we’ll explore what artists from around the world are responding to right now, and how their work connects to the big questions shaping our lives today. From Aotearoa New Zealand’s presentation by Fiona Pardington to standout international works, this session is all about making contemporary art feel approachable, engaging, and relevant.

William McKegg is a New Zealand writer, director, and producer with a career spanning film, television, animation, and theatre. He has worked internationally, including in London with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s company on major productions such as Phantom of the Opera, Cats, and Starlight Express, and in New Zealand has produced acclaimed works, including Buzzy Bee & Friends and the Pacific musical The Factory, which toured internationally. McKegg is also the founder of McKegg Entertainment and co-founder of Lion Rock Ventures, reflecting a career that bridges creative storytelling and entrepreneurial ventures.

SESSION: Abstract: William will take you behind the scenes of his short film Medicine. Shot entirely on location in rural India, the film tells the story of two backpackers on a transformative bus journey and has screened at over 50 international festivals, earning multiple accolades, including Best Short Form at the 2024 Asian Academy Creative Awards. In this session, McKegg will share insights into the creative process, challenges of shooting in an international setting, assembling a diverse cast and crew, and the strategies that brought this globally resonant story to life. Attendees will gain a rare glimpse into the making of a short film that blends authentic storytelling, cultural collaboration, and cinematic craft.

Dr Gabriel Reid is a New Zealand writer, director and educator whose work spans film, television and theatre. He holds a PhD in Film Studies and has researched Shakespeare adaptations at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre and Renaissance Films. His creative work has been recognised internationally and has garnered awards from Promax, Tropfest and the New Zealand Writers Guild, and his short films have screened at festivals around the world. His research explores tactics deployed by filmmakers to move stories and characters from page to screen, enabling centuries-old texts to resonate with modern mass audiences. He has taught English and film studies at secondary and tertiary level, connecting professional creative practice with engaging learning experiences.

SESSION: Abstract: 1,050 movies. 843 TV shows. Still no Oscar. Dr Reid argues it’s time to fix that. Shakespeare didn’t just write plays, he created characters, stories and themes that continue to shape cinema and television. This session makes the case for Shakespeare as the ultimate screenwriter, exploring his influence from classic Hollywood productions to bold contemporary interpretations. Participants will see examples, consider the bold and diverse creative choices filmmakers have made when bringing Shakespeare to the screen and engage in lively discussion. Discover why Shakespeare deserves the ultimate screenwriting award, and what filmmakers can teach us about bringing a long-dead genius to life.

Janet Mazenier is a contemporary visual artist whose practice engages with place, time, affect, world-bending, and materiality. Her drawn paintings are characterised by texturally rich, excavated, and striated surfaces that evoke ancientness, the hidden, the unseen, and the ephemeral.

In 2025, she led an international collective called Meitheal (an Irish term for people who support each other to bring in the harvest)—a collaboration born of time spent at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland. The collective includes world-building-bending women from Scotland, Spain, the United States, Ireland, and Aotearoa New Zealand. The collective's work, Faultlines, was exhibited at the Sluice World Building exhibition in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, in May, with a focus on inclusivity, art-making, and shared joy.

Janet works from two studios in Te Hau Kapua Devonport – one at her home, and the other as part of the Studio D3 artists collective at Depot Artspace. Her works are held in private and public collections, including tertiary institutions, across Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally.

SESSION: Abstract: Pursuing creativity as a profession following a corporate career - Currently a PhD (Creative Practice) candidate at AUT, Janet will finish her study in May 2026. Retiring in 2012, she has transitioned to working and studying fulltime as a professional artist. Her artistic practice has consolidated into a sustained and rigorous investigation of materiality, place, and temporal depth. Working predominantly with abstraction, her recent work foregrounds dense, stratified surfaces that register processes of accumulation, erosion, and emergence. Engaging with the wider international art community in Ireland and Iceland as well as in Aotearoa New Zealand, she has led collaborations, exhibitions and established collective practices. She is a connector and enjoys teaching and mentoring, seeing people respond to the power of art and how it can support their lives.

Since embracing her art practice fulltime, she now articulates painting as a form of knowledge production, one that bridges lived experience, material process, and conceptual reflection. Her practice thus stands as an example of how diverse professional histories can meaningfully inform lifelong learning.