The Big Apple art project made a big splash on the streets of Hastings. Photo / Warren Buckland
The Big Apple art project made a big splash on the streets of Hastings. Photo / Warren Buckland
OPINION: The next time you're in Europe, consider a trip to some of Poland's big cities.
Obliterated by the horrors of World War II, the likes of Poznan and Warsaw are great examples of how to rejuvenate culture and history in towns that lost their beating hearts.
One of thefinest examples is Wroclaw - which came up with the simplest but coolest little placemaking trick many years ago.
Around its walkable city centre streets, hundreds of tiny steel gnomes are welded to pavements and buildings.
Some are riding motorbikes, dancing, climbing, some even making rude gestures.
All of them are a permanent addition to the city, with maps available so you can go gnome spotting.
The streets of Wroclaw in Poland include a famous gnome hunt. Photo / Unsplash
It's great to see Hastings taking inspiration from this kind of real-life Pokemon Go idea with its apple sculptures.
The Big Apple Project has been taken down now, and they're due to be auctioned off for charity on Wednesday, but they were such a fantastic addition to the central city's streets.
So many people I know enjoyed apple hunts, walking or in cars.
All of the local designers involved in their conception did an outstanding job - they oozed creativity and charm, and they were uniquely Hastings.
I hope the auction raises plenty on Wednesday, and it's good to hear that this is not the end of the idea.
Pitsch Leiser, community arts development manager for Arts Inc Heretaunga, and Mauricio Benega of Studio Benega says Hastings will do something else in the future to build on the apple hunt - it's now been welded into the minds of decision-makers.
Napier's had the creative jump on Hastings for so long but it needs to keep innovating in its CBD if it wants to keep up.
A unique Napier trail of little deco sculptures, perhaps an extension to the theme of the iconic mum and her boy that lift Emerson St up, would undoubtedly be well received.
Yes it costs money, and yes ratepayers often have to pick up the slack to fund art, but we live in cities that are more than just a jumble of houses.
The more that we can do to tempt people into town, the more we feel like a community.
