The University of Otago last week announced its two arts fellows for 2026, Jeremy Beck (Ngai Tahu) being named the recipient of the Caroline Plummer Fellowship in Community Dance.
Beck, a contemporary dancer, teacher and choreographer born in Dunedin, said he was "super grateful" to have been acknowledged.
The fellowship would give him time and space to be around family and friends, and also to be really invested in his practice, he said.
"All the professional work I want to do is in Dunedin, and I really want to grow the community there."
During the fellowship, he planned to facilitate a multi-faceted and community-focused contemporary dance programme called "MOMENTUM".
He hoped it would spark new and sustained interest in contemporary dance in Dunedin.
Having six months to facilitate and teach his practice to other people "I think is going to be be quite huge for me", Beck said.
"Especially trying to open it up more away from professional dancers, which I’ve worked with for years and years, and just offering it more openly."
An author of three published books, with numerous other projects in development, O’Neill said they were "over the moon" to learn they had received the fellowship.
They had found living in a new place to be really stimulating, so the opportunity to head down to Dunedin and take part in its "incredible arts community" was exciting.
During the fellowship, they planned to work on completing their fourth book of poetry, Master of the Female Half-Lengths, and also begin outlining their fifth book Captured Stars — a verse novel set in planetariums around the world.
They planned to spend time at Tuhura Otago Museum’s Perpetual Guardian Planetarium as they began building the book, O’Neill said.
O’Neill and Beck will receive a stipend for one year and six months respectively, as well as space on campus to pursue their creative projects.
