Symposium countdown

Time flies when you’re organising a symposium – and yes, it is fun, we recommend it. We are delighted to report that the response for the call for papers was enthusiastic and we have advised the aspiring presenters and assembled what we’re pretty sure will be a wide-ranging take on Fascination. We will shortly be highlighting the keynote and then featuring the themes of various sessions in the 10 weeks ahead of the symposium. Between the blog and our Insta and FB pages (details above), there’ll be ever more reasons to join us in Dunedin 1-3 May.

At this stage, we can outline the broader programme and offer some practical advice. The symposium itself will take place on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 May. It will be preceded on the evening of Thursday 1 May by a panel discussion at our venue, Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, addressing the Eden in Dunedin exhibition curated by Jane Malthus from the Eden Hore Central Otago collection. Before that, our friends at the Hocken Library are welcoming CTANZ guests for special tours of the dress and textile holdings in this extraordinary public collection. These will take place in the early afternoon, so you might want to time your arrival accordingly. There will also be opportunities to visit the art gallery to appreciate Mataaho Collective’s latest work on the gallery’s Big Wall and the THIS IS NOM*d exhibition conveniently coinciding with the symposium.

For those who don’t know Dunedin, Toitū is pretty central, being just along from the Dunedin’s most photographed building, the railway station. Which is in its turn just a couple of blocks down from the Octagon, where you’ll find the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Parking isn’t too bad in the area. For advice on accommodation, the Dunedin NZ website is a good start: https://www.dunedinnz.com/visit/accommodation and the city council’s iSite can also help with suggestions. There are several hidden accommodation gems around the city, some quite close to Toitū. There will no doubt be other frequently asked questions; we’ll add these to the symposium page as we go along and registrations open soon.