After New Mirrors: Rosabel Tan and James Wenley on the Future of Arts Media
In a moment of major change for arts funding, Tan and Wenley reflect on what is lost when spaces for criticism and cultural conversation continue to disappear.
In late 2023, Rosabel Tan and Dr James Wenley released New Mirrors, a sobering examination of the fragile state of arts and cultural media in Aotearoa. The report arrived amid growing concern over the steady erosion of arts criticism and journalism. Since then, many of the closures and contractions identified in the study have accelerated. As Creative New Zealand announces a significant shift in funding direction, Tan and Wenley shared their thoughts on the continued importance of criticism and why thoughtful engagement still matters.
I love this interview because it both reaffirms the importance of arts media and speaks to why you must find joy in approaching criticism as a craft and practice, even when it’s super difficult.
Thanks so much, Rosabel and James.
John
It’s been a couple of years since your collaborative research piece New Mirrors, was published. Within the work, you describe a media landscape on the brink of collapse. Has anything in the time since publication altered either of your perspectives?
Rosabel: Not long after we published New Mirrors, Newshub shut down. NZME closed 14 community newspapers. Stuff closed 15 of its community papers. TVNZ axed its key current affairs shows Sunday and Fair Go, along with its midday and late-night news bulletins. Whakaata Māori shut down its own daily news bulletin. Pantograph Punch went on hiatus. North & South turned from a print magazine to a newsletter. “What we saw in 2024 was the most devastating loss of journalism the country has ever known” observed Duncan Grieve in The New Zealand Herald. It’s chill! It’s fine. Time moves on. RNZ’s funding was significantly cut. Bad Apple closed. Metro ceased its print publication.
When we put Pantograph Punch on hiatus, I kept saying to everyone — most of all myself — that if the need was there, something else would spring up in its place. Do I believe it? I needed to. Have my perspectives in New Mirrors changed? I’m less optimistic. A couple of years ago, The Fold took a look at the media landscape: “So why is the money flowing out of New Zealand at an ever faster rate? Because we’re not even trying to stop it, or even considering the consequences.”
How do we build truly sustainable models for arts journalism in this tiny country, in this hyper-fragmented doomscroll of an ecosystem? I do think it’s possible. Cultural journalism is such an important piece of the puzzle — in terms of deepening our appreciation for artists, valuing their work, understanding that some work is BAD, that some work is DANGEROUS, that some work SUCKS, that some work can change your life in a way you didn’t think was possible. But without a space to talk about this, we risk flattening everything into — what? An entertainment? A decoration? A thing forgotten to history?
James: We likened arts media to being the canary in the coalmine for the journalism ecosystem - when arts and cultural coverage is eroded, it’s a signal that media as a whole is in bad shape. Journalism around the world is holding on for dear life, with dire implications for access to credible reporting and the impact on our democratic systems. As Rosabel outlines, it is bleak out there.
But there are bright spots, which are important to celebrate. The New Mirrors study led to Creative New Zealand, NZ on Air and Radio New Zealand collaborating on the Arts and Culture Podcast, which supported three brilliant new series: Orators Anonymous, Tukua, and Pūtātara: Revolutions in Māori Art (Rosabel stayed involved with the fund, but I can shout about these!). This was an easy short-term win from the research, and the larger structural challenges remain unaddressed, but the podcasts offer a proof-of-concept of what can be created with dedicated support for arts media. I also take heart from industry-led initiatives like Auckland Arts Festival’s Young Critics Project which show that criticism is still valued. Establishing sustainable models with longevity remains the challenge.
You each come from different arts coverage backgrounds. Rosabel from editing and publishing and James from criticism and academia. How did your perspectives and experiences shape the way you took a collaborative approach to New Mirrors?
Rosabel: James and I both started our careers as theatre critics, at Craccum! We’ve both worked as editors as well (James at his publication Theatre Scenes (which I used to write for as well) and me with Pantograph Punch).
James: I owe Rosabel for getting me into criticism. I entered a Craccum competition for Comedy Festival tickets. I didn’t win, but Rosabel suggested I go review a show anyway. That’s how they get you!
Rosabel: For me, the act of dedicating time to thinking through a work: considering the artists’ intentions, how they manifest, the gaps that leave room for alternative interpretation — it’s such a special privilege, and gives you a deep appreciation for the work. We were always experimenting with form at Pantograph Punch, and one of my favourite experiments was the conversational review — where three of us would see the same show and our post-show discussion would form the review. I loved creating that space for disagreement, rejecting the authoritative critical voice, hearing how different people receive a work differently.
I have the deepest respect for James and that has been an important foundation for our collaboration. We were always going to come at it from different positions, different lived experiences, but we both understand and respect those positions. James, do you think we brought different things to the report?
James: Doing a literature review (looking at existing research from around the world) and developing your methodology are cornerstones of academic research, so that was always going to be a big focus for me. My involvement meant we had to go through a university ethics process for our interviews - which is interesting to compare with journalism which has its own professional ethical conventions. The final report was rather fittingly a hybrid of academic and magazine writing - we needed the findings to be credible and accessible.
I loved collaborating with Rosabel, who has such deep knowledge of the sector, and is always ready with provocative conversation-expanding questions. We were also supported by an amazing steering group from people across arts and media, who guided us along the way. Often in Humanities the researcher largely works alone, but as I know from theatre, collaboration is always so much better.
I’m starting a new research project later in the year with a team of Australian researchers, called The Critic Counts, looking at the role of the theatre critic across Australia and Aotearoa. Remarkably this received some major funding from the Australian Research Council. A big motivation is looking at how we archive theatre criticism - so we can retain our cultural memory - which will also involve another hard look at the current landscape a few years on from New Mirrors, and seeing what Australia and Aotearoa can learn from each other. Watch this space!
There’s a noticeable shift toward independent platforms (Substack, blogs, small publications). Do you see these as filling some of the gaps identified in New Mirrors, or are they symptoms of the same underlying issues?
Rosabel: I love reading Sam Brooks’ Dramatic Pause, and I love seeing him flex his critical muscle. I have huge respect for critics who commit to a practice of regular and timely coverage. But Sam, and other critics like Chris Schulz, aren’t gap fillers. I have no real idea about how sustainable they are, nor how widely they are being read. That’s what we are losing in media: a shared centralised place where many people converge — and, critically, where people who might not seek out art writing stumble upon it and keep reading.
James: I have so much gratitude for all those continuing to offer cultural commentary, it isn’t easy, especially when you have to self-sustain. I’ve been there too - I dedicated over a decade of passion and self-funding to Theatre Scenes but we were never able to properly start again after Covid, and have joined the ‘on hiatus’ list. I’d feel better if more platforms, like your own Theatre Research NZ, were popping up in its place. But instead I fear the gaps are continuing to grow.
We confirmed through the New Mirrors research that media coverage is valued and wanted by the arts sector - media helps connect audiences with arts, helps with funding, supports international programming, generates conversations. But if we want this to continue - even grow - then we need to follow up with dedicated investment. And it would be great to see legacy media stepping up too.
If you were speaking directly to someone beginning to write about the arts in Aotearoa, what would you recommend they consider at the outset?
James: Curiosity, passion and sheer bravery are enough to get started, but if you want to keep going you’ll want to consider some structures to look after yourself. What are your values? What do you want to achieve? Who is your community? The truism is that the arts community in Aotearoa is small - and can feel even more claustrophobic once you start writing about and reviewing the arts. Put up some guardrails. You don’t have to write about everything, it’s okay to say no - healthy even. I wish I’d taken that advice more often myself!
Rosabel: I love that, James. I’d add some practical notes: Read widely. Read deeply. Do your research. Understand the art form you’re writing about. Go to as many shows as you can, even if you aren’t covering them. Understand the wider ecology you are writing into. Develop a sense of what makes good writing, and what kind of writer you want to be. There are so many people in this industry who want to see you succeed. Know that they are there for you.
If you were to recommend three articles, books, or publications that any emerging arts critic in Aotearoa must read, what would they be?
James: Start with reading all the local and international criticism you can get your hands on - both on art you’ve engaged with yourself, and works you know nothing about. Reflect on what you respond to and how different writers make you feel. Next, I’d recommend Rosabel’s 2015 essay ‘The Critic in New Zealand’, which has only grown in relevance (it also feels fitting that the original link to the essay is dead, and it only lives on through the Wayback Machine). Finally, I keep coming back to Mark Fisher’s book How to Write about Theatre. Specific to theatre, but has good lessons for all.
Rosabel: Beyond what James has said about reading local and international criticism, I don’t think there’s really a silver bullet. When I was starting out, I read as much criticism as I could, not just theatre but visual arts, sports, perfume, film, music. Find the writing that speaks to you and ask yourself why. Find the voices you hate and ask yourself why. Some writers who shaped me in my early years, and yes, you are going to see an embarrassing 2000s American bias: Janet Malcolm (start with The Journalist and the Murderer). Simon Wilson (RIP Metro). Anthony Byrt. Janet McAllister (I really liked that her reviews took into account the ticket price. Class is so often forgotten when we are assessing the accessibility of a work) Joe Nunweek (RIP Pantograph Punch). Jia Tolentino. Hanif Abdurraqib. Over summer I read Authority by Andrea Long Chu and I do recommend reading her opening essay, Criticism in a Crisis.
Is there a question about New Mirrors, arts media, or your own practice that you wish you were asked more often? Or, is there something you think early-career critics should be thinking about that doesn’t come up enough?
James: We tend to focus on the challenges and downsides - and writing is hard! - but I’d love to talk more often about the joys of criticism. It is such a rush to be able to engage so deeply with an artistic work and grapple with how to articulate an experience and opinion to someone else. You can learn so much about yourself too. While I rarely write reviews at the moment, my critical practice and joy continues behind the scenes through dramaturgy, being an ‘outside eye’ in rehearsals, and through giving feedback to my students at Vic Uni. Criticism can be a life-long and life-giving practice.
Rosabel: Exactly. We’re in such a deficit mindset that we so often never get past the lack. I’d love for there to be more space to consider critical writing as a practice — and how it can continue to evolve.
Rosabel Tan is a creative producer, programmer, and researcher of Peranakan Chinese descent. Based in Tāmaki Makaurau, she is the Director of Satellites, an initiative that seeks to connect the past, present, and future of Aotearoa Asian art, currently through an online archive of artists and art-making, a visiting artist programme, and a series of grants and residencies. She was the Founding Editor of arts and culture journal The Pantograph Punch and has served as a co-programmer for Auckland Arts Festival (2019, 2020), Auckland Writers Festival (2022), Verb Festival (2023) and the Asian American Literature Festival (2024, 2025).
Dr James Wenley is a Pākehā theatre academic, practitioner, and critic with a passion for promoting the theatre of Aotearoa New Zealand. A senior lecturer in Te Whare Ngangahau–Theatre and Performance Studies at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington, James teaches acting, dramaturgy, musical theatre and social practice theatre. James was awarded a PhD from the University of Auckland.