New art fest for Mount streets

HANDS-ON: Te Aroha Smith is the mastermind behind the new Street Prints Mauao, a street art festival for Mount Maunganui. PHOTO/JOHN BORREN

Mount Maunganui will be turned into a mural lover's dream after almost two dozen street artists are let loose to decorate walls.

Street Prints Mauao is a street art festival in which 18 local and international artists will create larger-than-life murals on 15 different walls encompassing the theme land and sea.

The project is one of 20 art projects that will inject more than $50,000 into different art activities throughout the Western Bay of Plenty region from the recent Creative Communities Scheme funding round.

The festival is set to take place from December 10 for four days and will feature international mural artists including Roa from Berlin, Findic from the UK and Hula originally from Hawaii but based in New York.

Askew, Sean Duffell, Christie Wright and Cracked Ink are some of the New Zealand artists who will take part.

Festival director Te Aroha Smith said she and her husband, Jermaine, were passionate about street art.

"I just love it. Most people get intimidated by walking into an art gallery, the typical empty space with art work on the wall that no one can afford.

"Street artists get the short end of the straw. They do these magnificent murals, vibrant in colour and every street artist is different.

"Some will have political opinion, while others will be just doing it because they love the ocean and want to explore that."

The Smiths have been to street art festivals all over the globe including Dubai, Beijing and Thailand, she said.

"There has never been anything like it in Tauranga before. We are seeing a lot of areas in New Zealand starting to pave the way for street artists to showcase their talent but we thought we would take it a step further and have one here in Tauranga."

Mrs Smith said the murals had to be painted to the theme land and sea.

"The murals have to relate back to Tauranga; how abundant the land and sea is, the cultural and social aspects of Tauranga - even our tourism aspects like the kiwifruit and the port.

"But they will do it in such a way that makes other people not interested in street art look and feel something.

"That's what we love about it. It makes people feel. It makes people think and it is in a public forum so anyone and everyone can enjoy it without feeling boundaries."

The week in December would also feature a festival at Coronation Park with workshops, food vendors and live music for the youth demographic, she said.

The project would be good to get more visitors into the Bay too, she said.