The first major presentation in an American museum of contemporary art from both New Zealand and other Pacific nations, Paradise Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific, will go on exhibit at The Asia Society Museum - the leading institution in the United States dedicated to enhancing public understanding of the Asia-Pacific region..

The first major presentation in an American museum of contemporary art from both New Zealand and other Pacific nations, Paradise Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific, will go on exhibit at The Asia Society Museum - the leading institution in the United States dedicated to enhancing public understanding of the Asia-Pacific region..

The exhibition will be held at New York's prestigious Asia Society Museum from February - May 2004 as part of its spring programme, entitled New Zealand and the Pacific Century.

"The Asia Society has an outstanding reputation in New York, throughout the United States and internationally," said H.E. John Wood, New Zealand Ambassador to the United States of America.

"This exhibition will provide an excellent platform to promote our artists, our culture, our key industries and, ultimately, New Zealand."

Challenging the traditional notion of the Pacific as a "paradise", the exhibition will provide an alternative vision of New Zealand and the Pacific as sophisticated, urban and multi-cultural, with a vibrant contemporary culture that's having a growing global impact.

Paradise Now? will showcase the work of a number of leading contemporary artists, most of whom live in New Zealand and include: Shane Cotton, Peter Peryer, Michael Parekowhai, Lisa Reihana, John Pule, Michel Tuffery, Niki Hastings-McFall, Bill Hammond, John Ioane and Ruth Watson. The exhibition will also be accompanied by a series of public programmes, including films, lectures, symposiums and performance - all profiling New Zealand creativity and innovation.

Elizabeth Kerr, Chief Executive of Creative New Zealand said: "Paradise Now? represents an exceptional opportunity to promote both New Zealand and its distinctive contemporary art to a huge, influential audience.

"The impact of the Te Maori exhibition, when it opened at the Metropolitan Museum, New York in 1984, put traditional Maori art in the international spotlight for the first time," Miss Kerr continued. "Twenty years later, Paradise Now? will speak to the world about the fresh, original and Pacific qualities of contemporary art in New Zealand.

"The Asia Society Museum is an established and high-profile institution, committed to developing audiences and fostering communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. This exhibition offers an international platform for New Zealand arts, and will open up new markets and audiences for our extremely talented and innovative artists."

Other government agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, are working together to ensure full advantage is taken of the promotional opportunities that this exhibition offers New Zealand.

In this project funding round, the Asia Society was offered grants totalling $165,900 across Creative New Zealand's three boards - the Arts Board, Te Waka Toi and the Pacific Arts Committee. The grants are:

· $75,000 from the Arts Board towards freight, artists' travel and exhibition costs

· $56,000 from Te Waka Toi towards the Maori arts component of the exhibition, including kapa haka performances in New York by the Pounamu Performing Arts Trust

· $34,900 from the Pacific Arts Committee towards exhibition and artist costs, and an inter-media performance by Island Divas.

In the previous funding round, Creative New Zealand also supported the curatorial development of the exhibition with a $25,000 grant through the Arts Board.

The curator of the exhibition is Melissa Chiu, Curator, Contemporary Art, Asia Society Museum, along with New Zealand curatorial advisers Dr Karen Stevenson (University of Canterbury); Ngahiraka Mason (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki); Caroline Vercoe (University of Auckland); and Jim Vivieare (Auckland artist and curator).

Artist Michel Tuffery, who is taking part in the event, said the Asia Society exhibition and accompanying programmes are an ideal opportunity to show the United States the vibrancy and cutting-edge nature of New Zealand arts.

"A lot of Americans still don't know much about us and our art," he said. "They're in for a great surprise. We're just so different. It gives us a really positive advantage."