25 YEARS OF PONSONBY: JOHN ELLIOTT In the 1970s I was Deputy Principal of Bayfield School, but lived on the North Shore. When I returned to Auckland in 1982 I sought to live in Ponsonby, and have done so ever since. In October 1989 I was very involved with the local business association, and my main business was producing student diaries for schools throughout New Zealand. I decided to start a local newsletter to help promote local happenings, and so began the Ponsonby Community Newsletter - forerunner of Ponsonby News. The most interesting local issue in the last 25 years was the Western Bays Community Board’s trial of one way and closed streets around John Street in Ponsonby. This unpopular experiment caused civil disobedience, people drove up on footpaths to avoid the barricades, there were threats with AK-rifles. At the end of the trial Ponsonby Community Newsletter had received dozens of letters, mainly opposed to the changes. The board abandoned the idea. It was a great example of a Ponsonby neighbourhood issue - no one in Mt Roskill or on the North Shore cared one bit. It convinced me that a genuinely local magazine can succeed. Auckland is too big and there are too many suburbs to take an active interest in other areas. But we care, and have always done, about our own neighbourhood.
ARTS + CULTURE UPTOWN ARTS SCENE What’s on in October? Artweek! From 10 - 19 October, artists, galleries, community spaces, pop-ups, and businesses around Auckland host 100 free events over 90 venues! This will be Artweek’s fifth year of opening up art to the community, and of course the uptown area is highly concentrated arty goodness. On K’Road, there’s too much to mention: 17 events in 10 days. LOOK occupies the window fronts of 19 businesses. Nathan Thompson’s Black Filed Plates fill the Audio Foundation with sound, and Richard Killeen and Patrick Lundberg show new works at Ivan Anthony. Imogen Taylor’s latest exhibition Glory Hole opens 15 October at Michael Lett. Imogen also has work showing in Art Hall 4, the latest iteration of exhibitions from the artists who work at Studio Art Supplies. Held in the Crummer Road store’s upstairs space, the opening is on Saturday 11 October, with additional artworks by Evan Woodruffe, Dean Tercel and Michael Mitchell. Also in Crummer Road, Whitespace has Nic Moon; and next door at Silver Project Space is Mia Hamilton with the last couple of days of Mark Cleverley’s 60 year legacy of design at Objectspace. In Putiki Street, Two Rooms is showing Michael Shepherd and Elizabeth Thomson, Tahi Moore and John Skoog open on 17 October at Hopkinson Mossman, and Janelle Wills’ PN uncanny landscapes are at Orexart. F For full listings check out www.artweekauckland.co.nz (WILL PAYNT, STUDIO ART SUPPLIES)
The buzz, the cafes, the hot bread, the theatre, movies, art galleries, cosmopolitan PN lifestyle - who would want to live anywhere else? F
Imogen Taylor
Janelle Wills exhibition The World Belongs to the Dissatisfied
DEADLINE - 20TH OF THE MONTH
PONSONBY NEWS+ October 2014
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