SAE Auckland is proud to be on the ground supporting and celebrating the wider collective of creative businesses across the First Thursdays markets, and the local makers, artists, and independent creatives building their own creative focused businesses across Auckland. Whānau, and friends are warmly invited to see the markets in action at upcoming First Thursdays events on K Road!
Auckland’s creative media education institute, SAE Auckland, has announced a new partnership with Celestial Corner Shop, the creative collective behind the monthly Karangahape Road markets at First Thursdays. The partnership will place SAE students directly into live performance, social media, and content creation internship roles, giving them real industry experience in the Auckland community.
Celestial Corner is a creative collective, an online shop, market host, platforming more than 10 NZ-based artists under its “Alternative & Aotearoa Made” mission, with a loyal online following. Founded and led by Anita Tana, a Māori creative director from Aotearoa with a background in art, design, and sales, Celestial Corner has built its identity around fashion, alternative style, and retail jewellery, championing independent designers and makers who sit outside the mainstream retail space. The collective ran a store at St Kevin’s Arcade on K Road from 2021 to 2024 before shifting its focus to online retail and community, including curating several K Road-focused and holiday-focused community events and markets.
Anita also spent time running Spaced Studios, where the Celestial Corner collective could book and execute their own creative campaigns and photo and video shoots with her creative teams, giving her further experience in the collaboration between retail, product, and creative production that now shapes how she supports the artists and small businesses within the collective.
First Thursdays is a Karangahape Road monthly event, run by the Karangahape Road Business Association. On the first Thursday of every month, from around 5-9pm, the whole street comes alive with music, the celestial corner markets, late-night shopping, food and drink specials, art activations, among other unique experiences along K Road. First Thursdays has grown into one of Auckland’s most fond recurring community events, and it’s exactly the kind of creative environment and community space SAE Auckland loves to get involved in.
Under the partnership, students from across SAE Auckland’s bachelors programmes in audio, music production, songwriting, and screen, will take on creative roles at First Thursdays markets: performing live sets, capturing content, editing, and managing social media coverage of the events and artists and businesses involved. It’s a hands-on industry and community opportunity, and a chance for students to build a portfolio and a creative network.
“Anita and I have worked together for years through our own creative businesses” says Aria Chaplin, Marketing Coordinator at SAE Auckland, “so being able to launch the SAE x CC partnership after such a longstanding relationship in Auckland’s creative community is a significant moment for us. We had a vision of our students working alongside them and learning from this community space, so SAE and Celestial Corner decided it was a priority to make it happen,”
Celestial Corner Shop owner, Anita Tana, says the partnership reflects Celestial Corner’s commitment to supporting Auckland’s next generation of student creatives across every sector, with SAE’s Creative Business qualification offering an exciting new pathway for existing local creative businesses like her own. Now, SAE Auckland students will be part of the Celestial Corner community as creative students, artists, and content creators.
“Celestial Corner has always been about creating space for independent creatives to share their work, connect with community, and build something of their own. A lot of what I’ve built through Celestial Corner has come from collaborating with other creatives, so this partnership with SAE feels like a natural extension of that. We’re excited to welcome SAE students into the Celestial Corner community and give them opportunities to gain experience in a live creative environment, while also bringing fresh energy and ideas into First Thursdays. It feels really special to be able to support the next generation of creatives.” says Anita Tana, founder of Celestial Corner Shop.
The partnership is part of SAE Auckland’s focus on connecting students with local industry and community partners during their studies, turning creative passion into real career experience well before they graduate. The relationship between SAE Auckland and Celestial Corner Shop is designed to grow well beyond First Thursdays, with future opportunities for students to get involved in branding projects, photo and video shoots, festivals, and other creative collaborations as they arise. It’s an open pathway for students to keep sharpening the skills they’re building at SAE and carry them into real-world work throughout their studies.
To stay updated on First Thursdays events, follow @kroadnz and @celestialcorner.shop on Instagram!
Photography: Abigail Dellavo @abigaildellavo
