Art & Culture

UK Photographer Andy Jones has been visiting Taupō for three years and enjoys studying both the backstreets and the more polished side of town.

Waitangi Day celebrations in Taupō will take the form of a day of remembrance and celebration at Riverside Park.

Lew Solomon is hoping to track down a piece of computer history, featured in the Taupō Times on June 4, 1970.

Summer dressing this season is all about feeling good in what you wear — light, effortless pieces that carry you through warm days with ease.

She turned 30 in 2022, officially opening in August 1992, and now the Great Lake Centre is getting a make-over.

Budding young musician Sienna Storm* is already racking up a fair amount of music industry experience and has released two of her own compositions ‘Autumn Leaves’ and ‘Losing Faith’.

Two young Taupō dancers got the opportunity to perform with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in a “kiwiana” version of The Nutcracker recently.

One of the feature pieces of this year’s Graffiato Festival is a Taupō slant on Tourism New Zealand’s 100% Pure New Zealand logo.

A group of senior dance students from Taupo-Nui-a-Tia College got the trip of a lifetime recently with a trip to Los Angeles and New York City.

“I cannot believe I am laughing at something that two minutes earlier was so dark.”

Director Sharon Shanks describes Centre Stage’s upcoming production ‘Hangmen’ as beautifully written “about such a dark or intense subject, but then the playwright puts intense comedy into it as well.”

A day of learning and then presenting five pieces of music to a packed Great Lake Centre hall. The 2025 incarnation of Taupō School of Music’s Big Music Day also included the participation of six members of the Royal New Zealand Navy Band with Leading Musician Pricilla Scanlan conducting one of the pieces.

The 10th annual Malcolm Flowers Insurances Taupō Winter Festival has been hailed a huge success again this year, not only delivering a vibrant programme enjoyed by thousands, but also generating funds that are now going back into the community.

A New Zealand postage stamp has sold for $260,000 - the highest amount ever paid.

Local photographer Dave Gallacher took more than a passing interest in the recent Blood Moon.

 One of Taupō District Council’s major strategic partnership initiatives which was awarded funding earlier this year is set to go public with its aim of supporting and growing the arts sector in the district. 

Four Taupō artworks have been added to the National Register of 20^th Century Public Art.

The Taupō School of Music’s Big Music Day is back again - this time with a naval twist.

Taupō Museum latest exhibition Inclusive opens on Saturday, September 6.

Students from both Tauhara and Taupō-nui-a-Tia College will present pieces at the September midday concert.

The new Tūwharetoa and Taupō District Council administration building – He Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa – is one of four regional winners in the Architectural Design Awards.

Student directed and acted play ‘I Know This For Sure’ has won through from the first round of Theatre New Zealand’s annual TheatreFest competition and will now compete at a regional competition.

The popular Te Papa exhibition Colossal Squid Ngu Tipua is coming to Taupō Museum next week.

It may sound like a fantastical amalgam of serpent stories but ‘Leonardo’s Dragon: Five Far-flung Dragon Tales’ – award-winning Taupō author Donovan Bixley’s latest book – has emerged from a historical nugget.

Taupō’s Peter Winkelmann headed for the bright lights and excitement of Los Angeles in 2020 because he wanted to “go to the source” to learn how to be a screen actor.

We couldn’t feature all the events going on over the next three weeks, but we couldn’t resist Taupō’s very own puppeteering, amateur ornithologist Jeffrey Addison.

 Taupō Museum is set to unveil Punarua, possibly the largest piupiu ever created, in its Aotearoa debut following a standout international premiere at the prestigious 2024 Biennale of Sydney.

Young Taupō musicians are celebrating after winning both the band and solo categories at the Rotorua Regional Smokefreerockquest final.

Supposedly any publicity is good publicity.

The Taupō Concert Band will once again assume an evening spot in the midday concert series with several members reinvigorated from attendance at May’s Bay of Plenty Music School.

Talented youth from Taupō and Rotorua provide the performances at ‘Art in the House and Garden’, a June 8 concert raising money to support young classical musicians in the region.