Gail Imhoff at Space Studio and Gallery in July, during her first ever solo exhibition, Ngā Iti O Whanga Nui. Photo / Whanganui Photography
Gail Imhoff at Space Studio and Gallery in July, during her first ever solo exhibition, Ngā Iti O Whanga Nui. Photo / Whanganui Photography
The estate of Whanganui photographer Gail Imhoff has received a $3000 legacy grant towards the conservation and storage of her archive.
The funding comes courtesy of development agency Whanganui and Partners and was included in addition to its latest round of Amplify grants.
The agency's strategic lead for creative industries and arts, Emma Bugden, said Imhoff had applied for the funding but died last month.
"We really wanted to pay tribute to the really important legacy of her work and support the archiving of it, which was what her application was about," Bugden said.
"There are thousands of photographs that need to be ordered and stored.
"The work is still really necessary, even if she's no longer with us. I think it's really important to the local creative community, but also to Whanganui iwi, because she has photographed so many important moments in iwi history."
Bugden said the funding supported the first part of the archiving, which involved storing the photos on fit-for-purpose hard drives and getting them in chronological order.
"The next step is a bigger, long-term project the estate will be working on, which is naming all the people in the photographs.
Natalie Bradburn of CLEANCLEANCLEAN. Photo / Supplied
Amplify grants of $4000 each were handed out to five Whanganui creatives, to boost and grow their businesses.
They were picked from a record number of 35 applications.
"I was very relieved that I had an assessment panel of colleagues here to help with the decision-making because they were such good applications," Bugden said.
"It was a really heartening glimpse of where the creative sector in Whanganui is at. We've got so many exciting people doing different, worthwhile projects."
One such project is CLEANCLEANCLEAN, a research project that "thinks about the bathroom and everything in it".
Its brainchild, Natalie Bradburn, said the funding would go towards the development of a logo and a website upgrade.
"At the moment my website is very primitive. It's entry-level, cut and paste and join the dots," Bradburn said.
"There's a lot of room to improve."
Bradburn, an architect by trade, said there were many aspects to bathrooms that she would like to review, but she thought she had better "start small and do one thing".
The first release is a toothbrush shelf, which allows brushes to dry individually, instead of collecting and incubating forgotten drops of water, dried clumps of toothpaste, saliva and dust in a cup.
The traditional toothbrush cup was prevalent in most bathrooms she had visited, Bradburn said.
"This is just the beginning, but I do see it as a business that would span intricate details like this to workspaces, public toilets or swimming pools."
Amplify grants were also awarded to Kay Benseman (Pito Press), Sara Price and Zuzanna Thornton (Light + Vessel), Karlya Smith (Karlya Socks) and Rachel Stephenson (LadyBird Café and Gallery).
