Navigation for Arts on Sunday

12:40 A record year for New Zealand plays in 2011

We look at the reasons behind a there were more plays staged and more royalties paid out last year. That's despite the Rugby World Cup and tough times for theatres and audience goers.

12:50 Funding and governance of the Otago Museum

We find out about a stoush brewing in Dunedin over the funding and governance of the Otago Museum, with calls for the city council to slash its funding to the institution.

1:00 At The Movies returns with a look at the upcoming Academy Awards

1:30 Listener's Pick - An Evil Cradling by Brian Keegan

This week's pick is a book written by man held hostage for more than four years. Teresa Wyndham Smith explains why it's her favourite book.

1:40 An extended conversation with actress Danielle Cormack

Danielle Cormack has been seen recently on our screens as a murderous madam on the TV series Underbelly - Razor and is about to return to the stage in Carol Churchill's 30-year-old play Top Girls.

Top Girls Danielle Cormack
Danielle Cormack in Top Girls.

1:50 The Last of the Summer Wine

A trio of retired gents, fondly called The Last of the Summer Wine, have spent a decade fundraising for an outdoor sculpture exhibition…so why, and how, do they do it?

Getaway Gateway by Hannah Kidd
Getaway Gateway by Hannah Kidd, at the exhibition held by The Last of the Summer Wine.

2:00 The Laugh Track: Wacky Chad, pogo stick virtuoso

Video: Wacky Chad on Star King

Deitz Chad Wacky Chad

2:25 Artist Tony Bishop

Sonia Sly meets quirky landscape painter Tony Bishop and discovers that the creative community in Invercargill, albeit small, is alive and well.

One Perfect day at the Crib Tony Bishop
Left: One Perfect day at the Crib (2012) by Tony Bishop. Right: Tony Bishop.

Road Markings COVER FINAL2:30 Chapter & Verse

Our featured writer is expat Dr Michael Jackson – anthropologist and poet who lives and works in America but whose written an eBook that's part memoir, part social history, part ethnography of New Zealand and his thoughts about home, identity, belonging and the drive to be first.

Emma Underhill2:50 Portavillion

UK curator Emma Underhill (right) is bringing her Portavillion project to New Zealand. These temporary mobile architecturally intriguing structures have popped up all over London's parks and waterways. Now one will be built at the Splore music and arts festival.

3:00 The Sunday Drama: The Man That Lovelock Couldn't Beat by Dean Parker

A Scottish family legend sends a New Zealand historian down a path to discover the man that Lovelock couldn’t beat.