Tibetan prayer bowls inspire Wairoa artist Trish Scott in a large work showing this month at the arts foundation museum show.
Tibetan prayer bowls inspire Wairoa artist Trish Scott in a large work showing this month at the arts foundation museum show.
Local art is celebrated this month all over Wairoa in an explosion of colour and form, from the mystical and surreal to weaving, masks, quirky mixed media and nature-inspired works.
The Wairoa art exhibition opened on Friday at Wairoa Museum, one of the many art attractions making up the inaugural Wairoa Arts Festival 2024.
There is more Wairoa art to see at the opening of the Wairoa Arts Foundation (WAF) gallery No 9 on Locke St at 5pm tonight.
The festival coincides with the school holidays and includes workshops for students and adults, floor talks, print-making, drawing, creative writing and poetry workshops at the gallery and museum.
In addition, EIT and ACE tutors Kathy Wood and Helen Donnelly are providing free workshops on Tuesdays and Fridays this month, 10am to 3pm – including fabric and relief painting and recycled denim coiled baskets and Japanese embroidery.
Rounding off the festival, the Wairoa Māori Film Festival returns on Hawke’s Bay Anniversary and Labour Weekend at Kahungunu Marae in Nuhaka.
Along the way, poetry workshops, art and sip events and printing workshops will spice up the month.
Wairoa artists at the opening of the Wairoa Museum and Wairoa Arts Foundation art exhibition on Friday, left Joy McLachlin, Maraea Wesche, Amber D'Arcy, Andrea Ardern and Pauline Paul with work by Maureen Pene behind them.
The arts foundation was formed in 2018 and its chairman Ira Heyder said at the opening that six years on they were slowly growing into their big name.
He said they started with emerging new artists who whakawhanaungatanga to the district and they have reached out to older artists.
He acknowledged foundation members Judith Niania, Joy McLachlin and Valeta Mathias.
“We thought we would invite our artists from all over Wairoa and celebrate them with an inaugural festival happening over the month.”
He offered a mihi to those, “who made this new exhibition possible with all this amazing work”.
Valeta Mathias, artist, art tutor and WAF gallery manager at No 9, said it was a privilege to be here to see this come to fruition.
“It has been a dream to bring all these artists together under this umbrella, and it has always been an aim to have a home for our artists.”
Her level four art students also feature in the exhibition alongside established Wairoa artists.
Wairoa District Council’s Austin King paid tribute to the artists and organisers and the Creative Community Scheme and museum chair and district councillor Benita Cairns and museum director Clare Butler.
Ohuia Pickett has one of several mask-inspired pieces at the new show which opened on Friday.
King said they had a longstanding partnership with Creative New Zealand and every year they had a fund for artists who had a project in mind they wanted to get off the ground.
“The fund is open now for the month so check it out.”
Cairns said the exhibition was something the museum had long wanted to do.
“I know there are artists here closeted in Wairoa.”
Some of the planned activities are free and some require a fee to cover resources.
Enjoying the works the next day, Mathias said they had received a lot of good feedback about how the exhibition was set up and curated.
“The artists are very happy with how we have presented their work at the museum.”
New Zealand painter John Walsh who has recently moved to Wairoa said, “it is art, you don’t need words”, and that there were a lot of artists here who could show their work anywhere.
