Gemma Cairney logs onto our Zoom call fashionably late, greeting us with a beaming smile. The camera is slightly askew, as if placed in a rush; she lets us know that if she pops out of frame for a second, it’s to comfort her seven-month-old daughter, who’s supposed to be having a snooze.

She tells us how she saw Annie Lennox at the Royal Albert Hall last night, who was performing her first headline show in six years. “It was all for her charity, The Circle,” Cairney explains, eyes glittering. “It’s all about empowering women and girls around the world. It was beautiful, just really powerful.”

For decades, buying a magazine wasn’t just about reading – it was about the thrill of what came glued to the cover. A flimsy mood ring, a sparkly lip gloss, or a CD packed with chart-topping hits, the freebies that came with these magazines shaped shopping habits and teenage memories. While marketing gimmicks to some, for many of us they defined the magazine experience; choosing an issue meant choosing between the best freebies on the shelf, a rite of passage that defined the golden age of print media.

“Derek Fox, the first presenter of Te Karere (a Māori news programme), used to have an adage that you only ever see Māori on the front page in New Zealand if it’s mad, bad, or sad,” says Jamie Tahana, a freelance Māori journalist based in London. “I do think that attitude still largely prevails in New Zealand media.”

Behind the scenes of the entertainment industry lies a show-stopping secret: its role as an A-list polluter. According to industry reports, the average television show or movie in 2022 generated around 240 tons of waste – enough to fill over 90,000 cinema popcorn bags.Of this waste, half came from the disposal of props, sets, and costumes. In fact, the first thing Kate Allan, 37, noticed when she began her career in the television industry as a runner was the overflowing prop cupboards. From bar...

In this episode of Artbreak, Maria Vieira celebrates the 30th anniversary of Before Sunrise, a hallmark of holiday heartbreak cinema. Speaking with Kim Krizan, the co-writer of Richard Linklater’s trilogy. They discuss Krizan’s first holiday romance and the advice she would give anyone experiencing this unique heartbreak experience.

In this episode of Artbreak, Maria Vieira celebrates the 30th anniversary of Before Sunrise, a hallmark of holiday heartbreak cinema. Speaking with Kim Krizan, the...

“We are all made of the same clay but not the same mould.”

This Mexican proverb is at the entrance of this ceramics exhibition at the Foundling Museum and forms the foundation of its intention. Self-Made: Reshaping Identities (on until 1 June) features the work of four ceramicists, whose collections explore the numerous ways we become moulded by our experiences.

Utilising the malleable properties of clay to represent the forming and reforming of identity, the exhibition presents a rich mix of...

“You’re not only losing your marriage, there’s a sense you could be losing your entire extended family and main support network.” Daisy Finch and Romy Journee investigate splitting with the Mormon Church

Joe was just 21 when he returned from his Mormon mission – a rite of passage for those in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) – sent around the world to spread the word of God. It was then that he met his future partner. He was freshly disillusioned with the Church’s teachin...

A coalition of major arts organisations and philanthropists has announced a $12m emergency relief fund to support artists and art workers impacted by the Los Angeles fires.

Led by the J Paul Getty Trust, the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund will assist those across all artistic disciplines who have lost residences, studios, or had their livelihoods impacted.

Participating organisations include the Mohn Art Collective, which oversees three major LA museums, the Mellon Foundation, and the Andy...

In the run-up to the year 2000, politicians and policy-makers hoped to usher in the new century with a host of landmark cultural projects, funded through the Millennium Commission.

Twenty-five years on, many of the projects conceived in that era – ranging from new institutions to transformative refurbishments – are now firmly embedded in the cultural landscape. Others, however, faced significant challenges.

We look back at some of the successes and failures of the turn-of-the-millennium cultur...