Join the Verb Community

“Our Verb Community are part of our working family - join us because you believe in paying artists for their work, you believe that creative, accessible events make our cities better places to live, and you believe that creatives feed the mind, body and wairua with ideas that sustain and grow communities.” 

-- Claire Mabey, Verb Founder & Director

We’ve launched the Verb Community because we all need creativity to thrive – and right now, creativity needs all of us to keep it going. Verb’s mission from the start has been to support and nurture our creative community by making space for the stories and ideas that surprise, inspire and energise us. Become a member of the Verb Community, and you’ll be part of a whole team dedicated to gatherings, collaborations and the sharing of ideas that build empathy, sustain the spirit and positively shift the conversation. 

Verb Community members will

• Ensure artists are paid for their work 

• Help us create content and experiences that have real impact

• Support residencies that give young artists the time, space and money to make work

• Enable us to commission and publish curated reading lists, essay series and short fiction

• Make Wellington a renowned city for writers’ residencies, and a mecca for creative industry

• Keep ticket prices low – and a big chunk of what we do free

• Boost our advocacy for the creative community: our director, Claire Mabey, sits on the Board of Arts Wellington, and collectively we make sure that everything we do speaks to the value of arts, creatives and creative places.

What you’ll get in return

• Access to Verb Community hui where you can feed your ideas into what we do.

• Discounts on ticketed events and festival sessions.

• The ReVerb: a bespoke, curated monthly read from Verb Director Claire Mabey, and special guests to deliver inspiration to your inbox.

• Exclusive access to bibliotherapy sessions with book nerd, Verb director Claire Mabey, and guests.

• The first 50 members to join will receive a Verb tote bag with the 2019 Verb Anthology created by Food Court.

Verb Member Options

• Monthly: pay a monthly payment of $10

• Annual: pay $100 per year

• Custom: pay what you would like to pay!

Meet the Verb Founders: Claire and Andy

Claire Mabey: Director & Curator

Claire is a book nerd from way back. Claire will talk about books to anyone at anytime, anywhere. She loves Tarot, sea swimming, running, and having a transformative experience thanks to an artist whether a human one or a nature-powered one. That’s what life is all about. Her work has been in the arts festival industry, and in publishing, for her entire career. In 2014 she joined forces in work and in life with Andrew Laking and together they formed Pirate & Queen, the tiny production house behind Verb, LitCrawl and Lōemis (their dark festival baby). She is mum to Charlie and would love to be a good gardener but is a shit gardener. 

Andrew Laking: Director and Maker

Andrew is a musician and spent a big chunk of his life touring the world with the band, Gráda. Andrew is now the production muscle behind a lot of Verb’s work and is the creator and director of Lōemis Festival, a Solstice-timed dark moth that creates a series of bespoke productions with musicians, prop-makers, sculptors, fire artists, designers and his own musical energy.

A note on the image above by The Māori Mermaid

The beautiful wahine in our header was created by artist and writer Jessica Thompson Carr (The Māori Mermaid). We commissioned this artwork because we wanted a unique image to convey what we value: connection, learning, curiosity and the infinite nature of what creative work can offer us all. Read more about The Māori Mermaid here.

What’s coming up?

• Check out the latest podcasts and reads on our content page: short stories, essays, podcasts, reading lists. We’ll be publishing more from Aotearoa writers each month of 2020. We’ve also got a special partnership going with City Gallery Wellington (more on that later).

• We’re working on events for the end of 2020 and will be presenting two special festivals in 2021… watch this space. And in the meantime have a look at past festivals here.

• We currently run two residency programmes (micro-residencies for emerging writers during our Verb Festival, in partnership with an Aotearoa journal and with independent Wellington art galleries; and a three-week residency in partnership with Park Hotel and Katherine Mansfield House & Garden). We want to launch more residencies because we know how valuable they are to artists and how rare they are too. We think Wellington could be a Mecca for artist residencies and we want to help make that happen. See our current residency info here.