Award secret proves challenging

Stuart Devenie (left), Gareth Farr and John Parker (right) display their awards. Photo / Emily Hlavac-Green

One of Stuart Devenie's most challenging roles was having to keep a no-strings $50,000 Arts Foundation Laureate Award secret from his friends.

"I was at lunch with friends and when the phone rang, Simon [Bowden, Arts Foundation executive director] said we had to talk about something confidential so I went outside," said the Auckland actor, 59, who was awarded the laureate last night in a ceremony in Dunedin's Glenroy Auditorium.

"I had to go back into lunch with this strange expression on my face. They asked me, 'What's the matter?' I had to say, 'I can't tell you'."

Devenie received the laureate, awarded annually to five senior New Zealand artists, with composer Gareth Farr, ceramics artist and theatre designer John Parker, cinematographer Leon Narbey and dancer-choreographer Michael Parmenter.

Narbey, who is filming in Samoa, and Parmenter, studying for a doctorate in philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, were unable to attend.

"My first thought was one of relief," said Parmenter, 55, in an email.

"Surviving on Kiwi dollars in Paris has proved to be quite a challenge. So my first reaction was, 'Yeah ... now I can go to the dentist."

Auckland-based Parker, 63, in Christchurch working as production designer for Cabaret at the Court Theatre, said he might use the money to further his education.

"I have been toying with the idea of embarking on a PhD, probably through the Australian National University in Canberra," he said.

"I'm going to put it in the bank and only spend it on my education."

Narbey, 63, in Samoa filiming the Samoan-dialogue feature film The Orator, said he hoped the money would enable him to develop his own projects.

"There are two film projects I wish to complete - one is a feature film script that has been slowly finding its feet and another is a reflective film essay on time past and places present dealing with material I shot 40 years ago."

Farr, 42, of Wellington, said "paying the mortgage would be the really boring answer".

"I am completely freelance, there is no predictability in my life and I love it, but as a result the bank balance is sometimes up, sometimes down, and it is very rare for me to have some sort of backup."

The laureates were set up 10 years ago by the Arts Foundation, a patronage organisation with an endowment fund of more than $6 million.