CHATHAM ISLAND
Art for Art’s Sake New Zealand has always punched way above its weight in the field of creativity, but this aspect of our culture and our country often flies under the radar, and some of our most inspiring and creative individuals hail not from our big cities but the places in between. A recent art exhibition and auction on Chatham Islands has raised the creative profile of this part of New Zealand, and done it all for a great cause.
42
A I R C H AT H A M S . C O . N Z // S U M M E R 2 0 1 9
Chatham Island resident Phillipa Morrison says the idea for the auction and exhibition came from the desire to raise money for a new local playground. As Chairperson of the Norman Kirk Memorial Reserve – home to many of the island’s sports clubs – Phillipa is no stranger to fundraising, but for the playground it was decided to do it in a unique way that gave something back. “Erin Tuanui, a local community volunteer, and I talked about some different ideas for fundraising,” she says, “but we were pretty keen to do something different to the usual raffles and sausage sizzles that take the money and give nothing back. We settled on the idea for the art exhibition and auction because of another Chatham Islander – Robbie Lanauze – who was having an art exhibition in Bali. We have a lot of artists here, so we thought that something similar could work on the Chatham Islands.”
