Illuminated Horizons

Illuminated Horizons is a one-night-only inter-arts experience fusing impact storytelling, sound, live performance, and immersive visual design. 

Presented by Wordcore Wayfinders, the event brings together over 20 creatives to transform Te Puna Creative Hub into a walk-through, multi-sensory environment on NZ Poetry Day. We’re raising $3,000 to cover artist fees, technical production, and essential installation costs - ensuring this community-powered event remains bold, innovative, and accessible. 

Your support helps us push the boundaries of how stories are experienced in Aotearoa.

Illuminated Horizons is led by Wordcore Wayfinders, directed by:

• Christian Jensen – Creative producer and curator, known for work with Doc Edge, Metonymy, and Literatti.
• Shane Hollands – Vice President of NZ Poetry Society, founder of the Kerouac Effect and Wordcore Effect.
• Rachael Naomi – Artist and curator, co-founder of the Made Show, based in Huia, Tāmaki Makaurau.

Together, they bring decades of experience in immersive practice, inter-arts collaboration, and producing bold, future-facing creative projects.

Supported by Te Puna Creative Hub, NZ Poetry Society, Click Studios, Phantom Billstickers, and New Zealand Poetry Day.

We’re raising $3,000 to help cover essential production and delivery costs for Illuminated Horizons. While this amount won’t fully cover artist fees, it will directly support the infrastructure needed to bring this ambitious inter-arts experience to life.

Your support will help us cover:

• Lighting and audio tech hire
• content capture costs
• Essential equipment and materials for installation builds
• Basic travel support for out-of-region artists
• Partial support toward artist fees

This funding will allow us to honour the time and energy our diverse creative team has poured into this work, and ensure we can deliver a high-quality, professional experience for both artists and audiences.

Every contribution helps us make this vision real - and keeps independent, community-driven storytelling alive.

Illuminated Horizons is a multidisciplinary, impact-driven storytelling experience designed to blur the lines between performance, installation, sound, and visual art. Taking place on 22 August 2025 (NZ Poetry Day) at Te Puna Creative Hub, this one-night-only event features the collaborative work of over 20 artists - grouped into trios of visual artists, musicians, and Wordcore impact storytellers.

These trios are formed through a months-long creative process, producing site-specific works that fuse immersive design, live performance, and themes rooted in personal, cultural, and social impact. The result is a walk-through, multi-sensory experience where audiences engage directly with living, layered stories.

Our participants represent a wide range of backgrounds, artforms, and communities - from established names like David Eggleton and Paul McLaney to emerging artists, youth creators, and collectives such as Club Ruby and Still Thinking. The project includes artists from across Aotearoa, with deep connections to West Auckland, South Auckland, and regional creative networks. Each collaboration brings together distinct cultural, generational, and artistic perspectives - creating work that is as diverse as the communities it represents.

Your support helps us pay these artists fairly, cover technical and production costs, and ensure this ambitious, community-powered event is bold, accessible, and unforgettable

Illuminated Horizons creates space for voices, stories, and experiences that don’t usually fit inside mainstream formats. It’s a rare platform where inter-arts collaboration, emerging creatives, and diverse cultural perspectives come together to build something bold, experimental, and real.

This project brings together artists from across Aotearoa - spanning generations, disciplines, and communities - to co-create work that reflects the world we live in and the one we’re trying to build. It’s not just about performance-it’s about visibility, connection, and reimagining what storytelling can be when we break the rules.

Your support backs not just an event, but a movement: a collective of creatives reshaping the way we share meaning, memory, and impact through art. This is for anyone who believes in creativity as a force for change-and in backing the people doing the work from the ground up.