Research Group Summary
Te Puna Toi (Performance Research Project, New Zealand) has been established by the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Canterbury to provide a centre in New Zealand for the production of and research into performance and film for artists and scholars here and internationally. Te Puna Toi has been developed in close collaboration with the directors of the Centre for Performance Research (CPR) in Aberystwyth, Wales, with whom we have developed a formal partnership agreement.
Te Puna Toi provides a high-profile destination for artists and scholars from overseas, who will be drawn by the opportunity to experience and learn about Maori and Pacific Island performance directly and who will see Christchurch as a gateway for their own tours of Australasia. At the same time, it creates a platform for New Zealand scholars and artists, in particular those working at the nexus between the avant-garde and Maori and Pacific Island performance and film/video art, to promote their work worldwide.
A key component of Te Puna Toi is the development of an archive which duplicates and provides access to videos and other materials both from the CPR collection (currently over 700 videos) and from collections held by Maori and Pacific Island performers and scholars. The archive is sited in the Te Puna Toi offices, located in the Christchurch Arts Centre.
Te Puna Toi is also host to one of the New Zealand Film Archive's Video Access (VACCESS) reference archives.