MKWC Newsletter June 2015

This year is the Michael King Writers’ Centre 10th anniversary. Since the centre opened, we have had 33 writers in residence, more than 100 visiting writers and thousands of people have visited or attended our literary events. Several thousand students have taken part in our programmes for young writers. We hosted our first international residency in 2013 and since then we have developed a writers’ exchange with China.  Your support has helped to make this possible and we thank you. We also thank all the founding donors who helped to get the project off the ground, and the key funders and partners who have supported us along the way. Our hard-working trustees continue to make a huge contribution. Funding for the arts in general - for literature especially - is not easy. It is a constant struggle to get support, for overhead costs in particular. But with 10 years behind us, we know that residencies are an important way to support New Zealand writers.  We are proud to host some of the country’s best writers, help them write great work, and to have the opportunity to get to know them. We celebrated the anniversary with a garden party in March. We had some competition from Cyclone Lusi, but a great time was had by all despite the weather. We were delighted that our patron Rachael King and the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Hon. Maggie Barry, were able to join us to celebrate the achievements of 10 years. \ Best wishes Karren Beanland Manager Much more