The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi has announced Bill Direen as one of eight 2025 Arts Foundation laureates – outstanding practising artists recognised for their world-class work and profound impact on Aotearoa New Zealand’s culture and communities.

Direen was given the Joanna Hickman, Waiwetu Trust Award, in the dual disciplines of music and literature. Each laureate receives a no strings attached $50,000 gift – given in recognition of their extraordinary contribution to date and as a nudge to keep going. 

Described by the Laureate Selection Panel as “an underground legend, international troubadour and artistic polymath,”  Bill Direen has forged an independent path for nearly five decades, his singular, exploratory voice spanning music, poetry, prose and theatre. His work is as accessible as it is poetic – sometimes playful, sometimes searing, but always committed to the power of words, music, and the communities they build.

Panel statement:  An explorer both artistically and geographically, based variously in Berlin, Christchurch, Paris and Central Otago, and working with countless collaborators from around the world, Bill has been one of our truest and most literate musical voices, from his early seminal recordings with the Bilders in the formative days of Flying Nun, through to his triumphant album ‘Dustbin Of Empathy’, recorded with members of acclaimed American group Lambchop in 2024.

A musician, poet, novelist, theatre maker, editor and translator Bill has produced a mountain of work in various forms, work that can be at times esoteric, searing, grave, playful, humorous and deadly serious. His singular music, no matter the dynamic, has always been accessible, despite an unceasing poetic depth. As Bill says his work is “the fashioning of something inside me that isn’t always clear, that becomes clear with music and words, and above all, working with other musicians which, for me, is what music is all about”.” – Laureate Selection Panel