Our eldest daughter is studying Antarctica at the moment – lots of geography, history and biology – and I thought, it’s all very well doing the science, but what about the art? So in a fit of zealous good will I volunteered to do a wee presentation about the brilliant Artists to Antartica programme to the class...

I should say that the whole zealous bit was motivated by having recently received and been loved up by Bernadette Hall’s latest collection of poetry, Ponies (VUP), which was inspired by her time on the ice with my favourite NZ artist Kathryn Madill. This book is a stunner, and as I hate to review poetry because of its subjective nature (nothing to do with my embarrassing lack of qualification) all I can do is say go and get it.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, I tracked down Bernadette in the hope of getting some kind of statement that would be accessible to 9-year-old about what it was actually like, you know, like um getting there and like, being there. She was unable to help me, racing out the door to a meeting with Kathryn Madill to catch up before heading off this weekend to show off their Antarctic stuff... coincidence or what?. Alas for us Northerners, however, it’s all going on way down south. Here’s the when and where:

Bernadette will be launching Ponies this Friday at 7pm at The Forrester Gallery, Oamaru, and then will be heading to the Otago Museum with Kathryn to take part in a full day (Sunday April 1) of Antarctic Fellowship inspiration.

It starts at 11am with a film screening of ‘The Unframed Continent’. At 12pm there’s fashion designer Fieke Neuman, and our girls are on at 1pm. Composer Chris Cree Brown is on at 2.30pm - his work Under Erebus was inspired by putting a mike deep under the snows of Mt Erebus (creepy or what, but the music is fantastic, I heard it accompanying a DVD by Virginia King of her Antarctic sculptures). Choreographer Bronwyn Judge will be doing her stuff at 3.30pm. The entire day, taking in all of these extraordinary artists, is free. You lucky buggers.

One final note for Hall fans – she’ll be at Holy Name Church in Christchurch at 7.30pm on Monday April 2. This is where sculptor Llew Summers has done all those ‘controversial’ sculptures in his 14 Stations in the Way of the Cross work. Bernadette was commissioned to write poems as a response to each image. They made a book of it, copies of which, signed by both artists, may be purchased at the event price of $24.95.

Incidentally, if you're a fan of The Ice, check out this website dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of Scott Base this year. There are details on there of the Artists to Antarctica-based travelling road show that started at Te Papa on March 23 and will end in Dunedin in February next year. Yay. We need more ice up north.