Aotearoa's premiere festival of performance art offers internships for creative practitioners hoping to develop careers in performing arts practices. This is an opportunity to play a part in our team working with performance and live art practitioners from around Aotearoa and the world. A perfect opportunity if you are a student, a recent graduate, new to Pōneke, or are looking to get into this industry.​
 

The Performance Arcade is an annual exhibition and festival programme of events located on Wellington Waterfront, with ten years of successful presentations from 2011-2025. Our hybrid gallery/stage architecture is made from an assembly of shipping containers that create a series of spaces for installation, performance art, sonic art, interactive media, video-art, forums, theatre, dance, and live music. Opening onto the bustling Wellington Waterfront, these sites of encounter engage the public in contemporary art and performance practices outside the familiar constraints of gallery or theatre spaces, visited by 50-90,000 people each year.

We recognise the Mana Whenua of Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Maui (Te Ati Awa, Taranaki Iwi, Ngai Tara) where we present our work every year, and are committed to actively promoting diversity, accessibility, and inclusivity in the presentation of artists and audience experience of our event.
 

INTERNSHIP ROLES

​All Performance Arcade internships are voluntary. For this reason we work hard at tailoring each experience to suit what the intern is looking to get out of the role that they would play in our team. Listed below are some of the areas that interns have worked on in our event. Applicants are welcome to propose roles not listed below:

ARTIST LIAISON: work with our curatorial team on artist communications, co-ordination, programming, and planning
ARTIST ASSISTANTS: assigned specific works to provide assistance throughout realisation and presentation
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: work closely with our production team on planning for, installing, and delivering the event
PROGRAMME ASSISTANTS: focus on a specific programme element through planning, preparation, and execution
SPATIAL DESIGN ASSISTANTS: work with the spatial designer to develop and realise the event layout and architecture
MUSIC SERIES ASSISTANTS: fill support roles around the live music series, helping run gigs each night of the event - includes roles ranging from stage hand work, musician assistance, lighting, and rigging
MARKETING ASSISTANTS: have often taken diverse projects within the marketing campaign to help the event perform online and across various media
METRICS ASSISTANTS: contribute to designing our audience measurement plan and then help with executing this through the delivery of the event
ARCHIVAL ASSISTANTS: gathering information, and developing data/image-bases from the last 15 years of the event

GRAPHIC DESIGN ASSISTANTS: working with the marketing team and graphic lead to develop exciting collateral for the event through print, signage, and online material
 

TO APPLY

Send an introductory email with your curriculum vitae to theplaygroundnz@gmail.com by 20 September 2025, with the following statements/info:

1. What kind of role you are applying for.

2. Why you are interested in this role.

3. What you would like out of your internship experience​​​​​