Keep The Art Murmurs Website

Art Murmurs is a volunteer reviewing company based in Pōneke with 35 reviewers under its banner and in 2024 we provided reviews for 94 bodies of work. We offer our services without anyone being paid so the only expense we run into each year is the annual website fee.

I'm Sean! Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin, current Editor and Administrator of Art Murmurs. 

I took the reigns in June 2024 when Emilie Hope, Evee Telfar, Austin Harrison and Jenny Nimon all decided to take a step back after years of successful operation.  However the company goes back even before them! 

Our main contributors are: Jack McGee, Brie Keatley, Alia Marshall, Katie Hill, Teag Mackay, Campbell Wright, Guy van Egmond as well as myself and many more.

We use a peer-reviewing system, where each writer must be peer-reviewed by at least one other before publishing their review on our website. This system has meant our reviews are released later than other local providers, but we are proud to say that we are consistently receiving aroha in return for our write ups. 

This project would raise funds to reimburse previous years subscriptions to our website and would go to maintaining it as our chosen database of reviews.

Emilie Hope to be reimbursed $281.90

Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin to be reimbursed $297.10

Then Boosted takes the top 10%

Any goals beyond this one would go to covering future yearly subscription fee's from Weebly.

This project would mean reimbursing the volunteers who have fronted their own money in order to keep the website running. Without your support, the website can't keep running, which means we won't be able to keep writing and supporting our local creatives. 

For years, Art Murmurs has been offering free reviews for shows which provide critical feedback, evidence of work, marketing and entertainment all at once. 

Reviewing is a vital organ in our local live theatre ecosystem.  Art Murmurs is unique in it's kaupapa of critical feedback, sending reviewers who are creatives themselves, in order to give teams relevant and useful feedback when they can. 

Our reviewers put themselves on the chopping block. They consistently are being pushed to offer critique for shows even with the risk of being disliked. However, as a testament to the robust nature of local talent, we commonly receive thanks from grateful artists for our thoughtful reviews.

We understand that our sector is still struggling financially at the moment, so any donation is greatly appreciated.