The Athenaeum Blog

The use of the Athenaeum Library’s rooms as a pit stop for the people doing the Labour Party’s Art Trail (afterall we can not live on art alone!) was a great success. Jackie kindly volunteered her Sunday to attend and sign up new members and here are some of the photos she took of the… Read More

On Sunday 13 November 2016 from 10.30am to 4pm the New Zealand Labour Party is holding an art trail around the city and the Athenaeum will be the refreshment venue for hords of thirsty art lovers. Tickets are $20.00 each and to purchase tickets, call Islay: (03) 473 0278 or email her at:islaylittle@gmail.com This years featured… Read More

Our Evening with Holmes on the 6th of October was a great success with a good turn out to hear Barry Dorking read The Mystery of the White Stick.  Everyone agreed that it was incredibly soothing to be read to and they hope for more events like this – so watch this space we are… Read More

The Dunedin Athenaeum invites you to an evening of conviviality with a reading by the eminent Dunedin thespian Mr Barry Dorking from Dr Edwin Nye’s tale of intrigue and investigation by the legendary detective Mr Sherlock Holmes in the story of the “Mystery of the White stick”. Followed by refreshments 7pm on Thursday 6 October,… Read More

On Wednesday night an excited group of poetry lovers gathered to perform and listen to mostly original poetry at the Athenaeum Library. Last years Secondary schools Poetry Slam was so popular they decided to hold it again. We had fewer people attending this time which was a pity because we all agreed that the standard… Read More

Golly the ABC has been up and running for over nine months now. In that time we have discussed: An Imperfect Marriage by Tim Waterstone Live’s we Leave Behind by Maxine Alterio No! I don’t want to join a Book Club by Virginia Ironside The Children Act by Ian McEwan Time and Time Again by Ben… Read More

We are excited to have a page up and running on Facebook.  Look for us under groups as Dunedin Athenaeum & Mechanics Institute you can like us or even become a member. See you in cyberspace!

On Saturday the library was heaving with young people all enjoying the theatre of live performance poetry. Brave young poets bared their souls to a supportive audience and by the end of the night it was hard to tell which group was more elated by the experience.

The Dunedin Readers and Writers festival had a stunning run of warm sunny days and this was especially welcome for the outdoor unveiling of the Dan Davin plaque in the Octagon writers walk.  The plaque is placed by the famous statue of Robbie Burns for those of you wanting to go check it out. People… Read More

This years Chain Reaction mass book launch was poetry based and for some reason many people are afraid of poetry so it was good to see that the numbers for this years event were still high. Overcoming any poetry phobia was well worth it as the audience was entranced by the recited poems. David Eggleton spoke… Read More