The quirky, alternative creative visions across a spectrum of materials, styles and results – the winners of the Sustainable Art Challenge are currently exhibited at the Creative Tauranga Gallery, Willow Street, Downtown Tauranga (until the 25th July). Many of you will have already taken a peak at the wonderful efforts displayed in the Gallery the exhibition has to be one of the best “free” school holiday treats around this July.
My previous articles have tracked the path of the Art Challenge, its setting up and packing down at Baycourt (you can see a wide variety of the upcycled junk entries) and now here’s some images and comment on the exhibition opening at the CT Gallery.
I’m late – I thought it was 5.30pm so when I creep in and join the crowd on a cold Tauranga winter’s night the opening speaker is in full flight and I’m at the back – just inside the doors.
The crowd is like the works on display – eclectic. And, that’s just how it should be for a community based sustainability arts competition. My end of the age continuum is shared by the redoubtable Mary Dillon of the Environmental Trust which is responsible for both the Envirohub at the Historic Village and the Sustainable Arts Challenge.
At the opposite end is a delightful little toddler climbing on what I call the go-kart. 
The tone of the opening is relaxed. The smiles and the talk are a testament to the hardwork of the organisers.
The fabulous Laura who with Sarah has worked hard to ensure the Arts Challenge is a success
Speech completed we take a look at some of the winners – it’s the first time I’ve seen the trash to fash creations up close. They range from the wonderfully wearable “hip hop” outfil entered by Zoe Beck seen here with other vibrant out there creations
And can’t you see this at a party
to these two fabulous warrior women sartorial compilations. Zena returns?
Steampunk supreme
It took me a while to absorb the origins of this agricultural concoction. Bearing a surprising resemblance to a vintage couture garment I’ve just seen in “a magazine” this outfit of recycled agricultural plastic, docking rings, fence staples and intricately fringed woolpacks is publically wearable. It’s actually more conservative than many fashion items paraded on international catwalks.
It’s not all trash to fash:-
The Matahui School logo in recycled tiles and you will have seen some of the fabulous entries in the upcycled junk category shown in my previous article: Here are two of my favourites again. The seatbelt handbags and the freestanding firepit.
The Envirohub General Manager who has resigned to return to the Hawke’s Bay happily received one of these fabulous bags in a presentation acknowledging her contribution to environmental and sustainability work in the area.
In the front window of the Gallery is the wacky and whimsical entry by Lindsay Bluck of Tauranga. Coffee! The pictures tell it all. Great going Lindsay.
Apart from the environmental aspects of the Sustainable Art Challenge this Challenge is worthy of support, expansion and development. Next year you may want to enter but equally you may want to provide sponsorship. The world, or at least Tauranga, is watching
ARTbop READER COMPETITION
ARTbop has a (new) Countdown reusable shopping bag with the beautiful butterfly girl design as the prize in our Sustainable Art Challenge competition
Tell ARTbop:
What is the name of the school whose logo is displayed in the Sustainable Art Challenge 2016 winners exhibition at Creative Tauranga’s gallery?
Email your answer to info@artbop.co.nz by 5pm on 31st August 2016 with your name and telephone number. If we get more than one correct entry we’ll draw a winner. If you win and you live around Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty we may be able to deliver the prize to you and take a photo for ARTbop. If you don’t live in Tauranga or the Bay of Plenty region, we’ll post your prize to you. If you are a young person ARTbop would like you to tell your Mum, your Dad or whomever looks after you, that you’d like to enter ARTbop’s Sustainable Art Challenge 2016 competition. Good luck and keep reading ARTbop! (ARTbop does not enter into correspondence about its Reader Competitions and all decisions by ARTbop are final).
Rosemary Balu. Rosemary Balu is the founding and current editor of ARTbop. Rosemary has arts and law degrees from the University of Auckland. She has been a working lawyer and has participated in a wide variety of community activities where information gathering, submission writing, community advocacy and education have been involved. Interested in all forms of the arts since childhood Rosemary is focused on further developing and expanding multi-media ARTbop as the magazine for all the creative arts in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
