Youth find creative outlet

Arco co-founder Ana Heremaia (left) on opening day with Tony and Jaymee Makiha, 13, of Waima. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Kaikohe youth have a new outlet for their creativity this summer with the opening of a drop-in centre offering workshops and a shared space for art projects.

The opening of Arco Pop-up Space on November 22 saw a long-empty Broadway shop transformed and crowded with the creative and the curious. Visitors were invited to paint, draw and make collages of their ideas for improving the town, then add them to a plan of the main street while Kaikohe hiphop duo Funky North provided a musical backdrop.

Jaymee Makiha, 13, travelled from Waima for the opening with her father Tony. Her idea was a super-sized chess set for the Kaikohe Hotel site.

"There's a really big space so my idea was to make a really big chess set. I was inspired by Paihia [where community group Focus Paihia has made a giant board game for the waterfront park Horotutu] and I really love chess."

Jaymee said the pop-up space was "awesome".

"Kaikohe kids need something to get involved in and express their artistic sides."

Arco Pop-up Space is the brainchild of Ana Heremaia, Ruby Watson and Felicity Brenchley, all in their early 30s with a background in the creative industries.

Ms Heremaia said it was a space for youth to be creative during the summer holidays. It would also host a series of free workshops on interior design, graphic design, still life painting, something called the "great grand jelly banquet" and other topics.

Anyone who wanted to use the space for creative projects was welcome to drop in, she said.

"We want to see as many people utilising the space as possible."

Ms Heremaia was born in Christchurch and has worked in London and Melbourne, but her father came from Kaikohe. When he passed away two years ago she brought him home to be buried at Ngawha; her mother's death in March sparked a desire to "come home" to Kaikohe.

"I'm really happy here. I feel at home. I feel a connection, and I've met a lot of relatives I never knew I had."

Ms Watson said the aim of the summer-long pop-up space was to engage with youth, establish a presence in town and build up trust ahead of the trio's long-term project, to set up a boutique furniture-making business in Kaikohe to help young people into creative industries.

The trio was getting six months of mentoring via Akina Launchpad, a nationwide incubator for social enterprise projects, and would then pitch to investors. They were also competing in a people's choice competition via the NZ Herald's Elements magazine in which they could win $20,000 to further the project.