4 minute read
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.
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.”
Advertisement
“We originally just put the word out locally to see if any artists wanted to display their work and/or donate a piece to auction off to raise money for the playground. We were surprised about the amount of interest we got, not just locally but from outside the island: we had Chatham Islanders in Australia and Portugal as well as mainland New Zealand respond and it just grew and grew, and because there was so much interest we felt there was no point in just having a one day, one-off event: it deserved to be much more than that.”
The result was a three-day exhibition that featured 117 artworks in total, with a silent auction for 19 donated artworks that also featured online. 150 people visited the exhibition – no mean feat for a remote island – and around $5000 was raised from ticket sales and the auction itself.
“It grew into something much, much bigger than we’d planned,” says Phillipa. “We had the school come down and we talked about the different kinds of things that artists do. The kids were pretty wowed by it all, so hopefully there will be a few of them inspired to do something themselves. There was sculpture, weaving, carving, painting and charcoal works, and so it was great to see how much it broadened their view of what art is and what art does. And that art is right here on the island and not in a museum in Wellington.”
Like many out of the way places in New Zealand, the Chatham Islands have numerous artists working away in quiet isolation. How is it that such small communities produce so much creativity? “If you talk to the artists here,” says Phillipa, “the answer is that the natural environment is their inspiration: the bird life, the flora and fauna, the landscape, the ocean. We had a lot of people who had never displayed their work before, and who never really thought of themselves as ‘artists’, but who got involved because it was local and it was a great cause. So it raised awareness of the creative side of the island, but also raised awareness on the island – and everyone who donated art will have their names listed on a plaque at the playground.”
Given the success of the three-day event, are there plans for more? Playgrounds don’t come cheap these days after all. “We didn’t initially think along those lines, but there have been so many people who have come forward for this one and who are talking about doing more in the future that we are definitely thinking about maybe a biannual event. So while we won’t say just yet that it will be a regular thing, I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to just be a one off!”
The organisers would like to thank the following artists for donating their work: Marie McDonald, Eva-Cherie Tuck, Christine Harvey, Tamahine Harvey, Tara-May King, Jo Clark, Brenda Tuuta, Bernice Thomas, Kerrie-Ann Smith, Shirley Lindsay, Celine Gregory-Hunt, Rena-May Hough, Te Amo Tuuta, and Jamie Tauroa.
