New Zealand-born performance and installation artist Alicia Frankovich has taken up the 2010/11 Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Artists Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. 

Alicia visited the Embassy earlier this week to introduce herself to the Ambassador and Embassy staff. She has been to Berlin before but is still excited to be living in this pulsating city for a whole year. Alicia sees Berlin as an excellent place for young artists to build up a network and experience the visibility of the city.

Parachute Band have just started their third major tour of the year, and will spend the next two months performing at a range of church services, conferences and festivals in the UK, Germany, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, and The Netherlands. Upcoming highlights include Creationfest UK, and the popular British conference Rocknations.

The Black Seeds are touring Europe in July and August  2010, including gigs in their old stomping ground, Germany. Amongst other shows, is a joint performace with New Zealand singer/rapper Ladi6 at the Zeltival on 30 July, in Karlsruhe.

Check out www.theblackseeds.com for the Black Seeds' tour dates and places.

There will be changes to Immigration New Zealand's Operational Policy effective 26 July 2010.

From 26 July all temporary permit holders will be able to study one or more courses for up to three months in total.

This applies per permit or over a twelve month period in the case of multi-year permits. 

Please see current information on www.immigration.govt.nz