Visual arts students participate in the Pat Hanly Creativity Project and Awards
Posted on June 12, 2024
Macleans College senior visual arts students took part in the first stage of the prestigious Pat Hanly Creativity Project and Awards held at the Auckland City Art Gallery on Wednesday 22 May.
The concept of the ‘Inspire’ first stage was realised as the students were led on gallery tours of exhibitions to examine artworks and take part in engaging practical workshops.
The theme for the awards this year is ‘Tokū Tūrangawaewae’. In the exhibition spaces students viewed artworks by contemporary New Zealand artists and were prompted by gallery education staff to consider their own readings and responses to the works.
The day included workshops by two contemporary Maori artists, Raukura Turei and Chevron Hassett, both of whom challenged the students' thinking on materiality and the use of different processes in art making.
Raukura Turei is a multi-disciplinary artist, architect, and designer of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki and Ngā Rauru Kītahi iwi. In her art practice, Turei uses whenua (earth) collected from Papatūānuku to explore notions of whakapapa and deepen her connection to her tūrangwaewae (ancestral lands). Students were given the opportunity to apply the learnings by being immersed in making their own paint media from deeply coloured clays from different areas in Auckland.
Chevron Hassett is an artist of Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine, and Kahungunu heritage. He led the students in an exploration of pattern and whakairo where students created carved plates which they printed using oil sticks.
On completing this first stage of the awards programme students will now create their own works based on the theme over the next several weeks. The work will then be displayed within school and viewed by a selection panel of art gallery staff to make a final selection for an exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery.
