Katikati is a town famous for its murals. At present, there are 68 of them. All the murals and a map of where they are, can be found at www.muraltown.co.nz/our-murals/
Soon there will be another added to the list after the winner of this year’s NZ Mural Contest is chosen.
Artists from all over the world submitted their interpretations of this year’s theme ‘the future is our children’ and the seven finalists will be painting their mural during the festival from 10:00 on Monday – Saturday. Located in different locations around town, it’s a must to keep checking in to watch the progress.
The finalists are:
Shane Walker, local lad and winner of the 2015 NZ Mural Contest
Karen Lawson, Karen now lives in Katikati and had participated previously in our festivals
Nicolas Hudson, Nicolas lives in Napier but comes from South America, he will be joining us on Thursday to start painting.
Kerry and Jack Nicholson, this is a father and son team from Australia. Kerry has been involved in pervious festivals.
Crystal Barbre, Crystal is joining us from the USA.
Bodhi Vincent, Bodhi lives in Raumati South and has been involved in our festivals before as well as painting murals for Katikati.
Frances Wregg, Frances is from Australia and she too has competed in the NZ Mural Contests before.
The 2017 NZ Mural Contest & Arts Festival will be the sixth. This biennial event promotes mural, sculptural and photographic art and due to the quality and number of artists it attracts is now considered a major forum for outdoor art in New Zealand.
As well as the mural, sculpture and photography contests, there is one for the best song written about one of the existing murals. These songs will be performed on Friday 6th October at the ‘Songs for the Murals’ night in conjunction with the Katikati Folk Club. For more details check the ‘Calendar of Events’ link below.
The 2015 festival was attended by people in their 1,000’s who not only saw the mural artists at work, but saw roving street performers, art exhibitions, 3D pavement art, floral art, musicians, and lots, lots more. They also attended the art market and had the opportunity to bid on a Bird House painted by a local artist for charity. There was even snow.
This year’s festival will be bigger and better. Street entertainers have been booked. Artists are painting Toy Boxes for the charity auction. There is way too much to mention here so for the complete list of events go to www.katikatimurals.co.nz/calendar-of-events/
Following are Art Exhibitions that will be on during the festival:
“Katikati Art Group Expo”
War Memorial Hall
30/09/2017 – 04/10/2017 10:00-16:00 daily
The Katikati Art Group’s annual exhibition heralds the start of festivities.
Enjoy the large display of impressive and unique artwork. Be inspired by the ambiance and creativity of our local art group.
There will be a special panel of Haiku poetry art where members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite piece. The artists have painted their interpretation of Haiku poetry from the many along the beautiful Haiku path.
More information about the Haiku Pathway can be found at www.katikati.co.nz/kk_text/haiku.html
“Friends Exhibition”
Harry Maddox Jeweller, 18 Main Road, Katikati
30th Sept – 7th Oct. Sat & Sun 9:00-4:00 Mon-Fri 9:00-4:30
Five female friends have gotten together to exhibit their art. The five ladies Val Tubman, Lorraine Browne, Leigh Basinger, Birgitt Shannon and Anne Bowling are Bay of Plenty artists with decades of experience. Between them they have won awards, had numerous solo and group exhibitions and sold paintings that now hang in private homes and public places all over New Zealand and the world.
The work you will see at this exhibition is eclectic. From nature to abstracts, and ever colour imaginable, there will be something for everyone.
One of the artists will be at the exhibition on Saturday, Sunday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday to answer questions or to just have a chat…or not, if you would like to ponder the artwork quietly and undisturbed in this wonderful gallery.
Michael Angelo Exhibition”
Memorial Lounge, Main Road
30/9/17 – 4/10/17 10:00-5:00 daily
Most of his inspiration comes from the spiritual aspects of nature.
He does not plan his artwork – they just flow from life experiences.
Michael carves in his own unique style inspired from within and combines this with drawing and painting.
He spent much of his childhood playing among trees and for many years he was a gardener, so trees, birds, bees and flowers also inspire his work.
Guided Mural Tours:
30/09/2017 – 07/10/2017 11:00-12:00 Daily
Each day during the festival there will be guided mural tours. These will leave the Information Centre in Diggelmann Park at 11am and cost $10 per person. Our guides are a fountain of knowledge about the history of the area and the tours are a really great experience.
In a statement, Steve Graveson, the president of Katikati Open-Air Art said,
“This year we will be hosting our sixth festival, it is amazing to see how this biennial event has grown and developed into an entertaining and exciting weeklong celebration of the arts in all its various forms.
Over that last twelve years our community has been privileged to witness 39 artists from all over New Zealand and overseas skilfully recreate their mural designs over the five to six-day timeframe.
This year our theme is especially relevant, as we are celebrating our children and the role they have in our community and the future, there will heaps of events and activities that we can all enter into and where we can allow our creative juices to flow.
Finally, I am reminded that this festival is not only a celebration of the arts, but also a time to remember, to remember the foresight and commitment the original Katikati Open-Air Art committee had to develop our amazing outdoor art gallery, we especially remember June Carlton, the inspirational driving force behind the project in the early years, this festival celebrates her with the June Carlton Memorial Trophy being awarded to the winning mural artist.
It is great to celebrate the amazing talent we have in our community, I encourage us all to enter into the spirit of the festival and have a memorable week.”
This festival is an event not to be missed so put it in your diary, get down to Katikati and enjoy!
BIRGITT SHANNON Artist, Katikati An accomplished artist of Australian descent Birgitt has participated in solo and group exhibitions. She is part of the group of artists chosen the now famous Morrinsville Cows – a street art project. Her street art work can also been seen on the large planters outside the Katikati BNZ, part of the 2015 NZ Mural Competition and Arts Festival. Birgitt has sold dozens of paintings in Australia and New Zealand and has recently sold a painting now hanging in a Research Centre at The Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles. Birgitt’s work can be found on her website www.artbybirgitt.com and you can follow her facebook page at www.facebook.com/artbybirgittnz
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