Former art school students reunite for exhibition

Artists Rena Pearson, Sarah Williams, Cheleigh-Anne Dunkerton and Rebekah Tomlinson show work in the Reunion exhibition at Space Gallery, May 2015. All were in the 2008-12 BFA course at Whanganui Ucol

Their four years at Wanganui's Quay School of the Arts were "intense" and an exhibition brought them back together at the weekend.

Thirty students started a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree there in 2008. About half made it to graduation in 2012.

Ten of them have work in the Reunion show on at Wanganui's Space gallery. It runs until May 22 and the works range from photographs through to sculpture, painting, drawing and collage.

The women said they felt privileged to study at Whanganui Ucol during that time.

Their entire four years were spent in refurbished heritage buildings on Taupo Quay. They had space and freedom to stay all night if they chose - and sometimes they did.

"We pretty much lived there. It was insane," Cheleigh-Anne Dunkerton said.

She was born in Wanganui and now teaches art classes and works in an artist-run studio in Palmerston North.

Rena Pearson came from Auckland for the course.

She was an art teacher, but did not have a degree. Now she's back in Auckland because her grandchildren are there, and gives art classes at schools as a volunteer.

"Out in the real world you don't really get the chance to get that intense and focused about your work. (The four years were) a pretty special experience," she said.

Sarah Williams, the class dux, started Space gallery three years ago.

Fellow student Rebekah Tomlinson is also still in Wanganui, and working on a post-graduate diploma in computer graphic design.

The women's degree course was under threat by 2012, due to low enrolments, but they said their tutors shielded them from that.

"They stayed really consistent. They didn't waver under pressure or stress."

The reunion show was Ms Dunkerton's idea, and her former classmates leapt at it.

"It's a reunion of work and to see where we've all gone, and it's a reunion of friendship as well," Ms Pearson said.