Arts exhibitions: Bay Art, quilts, wearable art and Journeys
Philly Hall setting up for Journeys. Photo: Neil Wilson.
BAY ART
Golden Bay High School’s hall will again bulge with a wide variety of entries when The Golden Bay Community Arts Council launches the 24th annual Bay Art Exhibition tonight at 6pm.
Bay Art is a true community event – it gives an opportunity for local artists to have their profile raised or artistic beginners to venture into the process of exhibiting and having their work appreciated.
Prizes are sponsored by a variety of local organisations and businesses, the main one being the Mussel Inn. Bay Art expresses the eclectic and diverse range of skills in Golden Bay but it is judged by out-of-towners. Nelson Arts aficionados, Mike Tasman Jones, Anne Rush and Graeme Cornwell will take on the unenviable job this year said arts worker Lynn Udell. Visitors to the exhibition also have the chance to vote for the People’s Choice Award.
Well over 1000 people are expected to enjoy the works and be inspired in creative endeavours.
After tonight’s opening, the exhibition runs from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November between 10am and 4pm. Entry is by gold coin donation.
JOURNEYS
Five of our community’s artists are collaborating for the third time in an exhibition called Journeys.
Jill Foxcroft, Philly Hall, Sarah Hornibrooke, Hennie Pemberton and Kathy Reilly celebrated the opening of their exhibition in the MONZA Gallery last night. It will continue until 21 November.
“It’s more than just an artistic collaboration,” said Philly. “We all got together some time ago when we had small children. We were slightly frustrated by the lack of opportunity to paint so getting together made us able to support each other to paint more. This is our third joint exhibition so we’ve come a long way.”
The exhibition features watercolours and etchings as well as acrylic and oil paintings. Philly explained that the title Journeys was a thematic hook on which to hang the exhibition. “We’ve interpreted the ideas behind journeys in our own ways,” she said. “Every aspect of life can be seen as a journey, so anything is possible.”
WEARABLE ART SHOWS
This weekend sees the Golden Bay Museum opening their new exhibition celebrating the contribution made by Golden Bay artists to the World of Wearable Art Shows over the past 20 years. No community of similar size can rival the impact that Golden Bay has had on WOW.
The exhibition features work by Sarah Hornibrooke, Claire Prebble, Dominique de Borrekens, Toy Murchie, Deb Price and Liza Eastman. It also includes a special tribute to the late Robyn Park.
Heather Palmer, Suzie Moncrieff and the WOW Trust in Nelson have loaned eight creations and donated the time of their technician, Deb Price, to assist with their installation.This has been really helpful to the Golden Bay Museum team. Dominique de Borrekens, now a professional installation artist, has also made a major contribution to the arrangement of the exhibition.
Museum manager, Jane McDonald, said that the museum is delighted to give the people of Golden Bay the chance to see these amazing garments up close and they are grateful for the assistance of the artists who created them.
The exhibition runs until the end of February next year and entry is free.
A RETROSPECTIVE OF QUILTS
The traditional Labour Weekend quilt exhibition has taken on a whole new life this year.
“We’re exhibiting in the Collingwood Hall, away from our usual venue,” said spokesperson Liza Eastman. “The Collingwood Hall is huge and it gives us the chance to display lots of quilts, so we decided to mount a retrospective exhibition. That means some people’s first quilts are hanging near their latest work to show how they’ve progressed.”
The exhibition will include about 170 quilts in all and will include works that are usually hung in the Catholic and Anglican churches and the information centre. Liza’s own six-metre-by-three-metre Antarctic quilt, possibly the largest single quilt in New Zealand, will also be on public display in Golden Bay for the first time.
The quilting retrospective is open from 9am-5pm each day including Labour Day. A special evening session will happen between 6.30 and 8.30pm on the same night as the Collingwood Volunteer Fire Brigade’s fireworks display.
Neil Wilson
