Papakura Art Gallery prepares for busy year

 A “sensational” 2008 sets Papakura’s Art Gallery up for a bumper year in 2009, with only two exhibition slots available in the Gallery’s exhibition programme and attendance figures climbing month by month.

Gallery Manager Emma Millyn says 2008 was the best year in the Gallery’s history, with exhibitions breaking previous attendance records on the way to the Gallery’s best-ever full-year attendance figures and the popular end of year Small Packages exhibition tripling its sales figures over 2007. In the full 2008 year, 4,341 people visited the Gallery. An “all-media” exhibition of items by a wide range of local artists, Small Packages drew twice the attendance in 2008 as it did the year before.

“Our visitor numbers would not be as strong as they are without the artists who exhibit with us and the people who support those exhibitions. We have really re-established the Gallery as the district’s art space which is wonderful.”

Interest from artists has reached an all-time high, with only two exhibition slots yet to be filled in 2009 and a programme of workshops that support the exhibitions. Innovative themes for exhibitions have become a Gallery hallmark, and will continue in 2009.

“This year we will have the Gallery’s first Chinese New Year exhibitions, highlighting the work of south Auckland artists Haihui Wang and Onlie Ong. Haihui’s work Everything is going swimmingly explores themes of water and light and celebrates the Kiwi summer culture of being around water and swimming every minute of the day. Onlie’s ceramic sculpture exhibition is called I think therefore I am and it explores themes about adjusting to life in a Western country.”

Both exhibitions run from 21 February until 21 March.

On January 17 the Gallery starts 2009 with something out of the ordinary: the haunting Crossroads exhibition, a sobering look at the white roadside crosses that are put up by families to mark where they have lost loved ones to road crashes.

“This exhibition is organised in support of Papakura District Council’s road safety initiatives. It might seem a sombre start to the new year but it’s about life and the choices people make. Each roadside cross has a different perspective, each tells its own story.”

During the Crossroads exhibition, there will be additional displays in the Art Gallery to emphasise road safety themes.

Crossroads concludes on February 14.

Other highlights of the coming year include a photographic exhibition by Sue Dick; the Papakura Youth Art Awards; a Matariki exhibition at mid-year; a painting exhibition by Grant Whibley; the 2009 Papakura Neat Street and garden Awards and the end of year Small Packages exhibition.

Confirmed exhibitions and workshops are all listed in the inaugural Papakura Arts directory and event calendar, which was produced by Papakura District Council in late 2008 and is available from a range of outlets in the town centre including the Council, Art Gallery and Sir Edmund Hillary Library.

The document is also available on the web site www.papakuraarts.co.nz