Keeping it local: local news and updates

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If you’ve ever admired Susannah Bridges’ embossed porcelain lights on sale at Te Uru Gallery, then now is the time to get there and get one – they are on offer at a great special price, ending on August 31. Susannah was recently a recipient of an Arts Continuity Grant from Creative NZ’s Covid19 response strategy. She will be developing prototypes for large scale bespoke light works, alongside updating her existing range. Watch this space for further news. The Fringe wants to help our businesses and community groups recover from the stresses of lockdown and makes space on these pages available for advertisers and non-commercial organisations, at no charge. To be included in our next issue, email info@fringemedia. co.nz before August 14.

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The local board is currently consulting on its three year plan. This is a statutory required document in which we set out our aims and aspirations for this term.

When the local board started work on this, last November, the world was an entirely different place. Climate change was the most present danger but we still had a decade or so to get the city ready for it. Then Covid 19 hit.

In January news broke about a new viral outbreak in Wuhan that spread easily and hospitalised and killed some, especially those who were older or who had preexisting conditions. It then appeared in Italy and Spain and overwhelmed their hospitals. It started to appear in other countries as well.

It made its way to New Zealand. Thanks to determined early intervention by the Government and the actions of the team of five million we are living in a paradise where the only current notified infections are those of returning kiwis kept in isolation. This may not last, the virus is easily spread and human beings can do crazy things, but so far so good. Even though we have not had the same effects as overseas the virus is still having a profound effect. The world’s economy has dramatically changed and locally we are seeing the effect of decreased demand. Council has just finalised its emergency budget to address a predicted hole in Council’s finances. Even with the best of intentions council’s spend will contract and we will not be able to do what we have in the past. But the rebuild from Covid is vital and the need to address climate change is also a vital area of activity for us. This is why our draft local board plan has been so difficult to write and why it is so important that we get it right. Let us know what you think of the plan. And tell us how we can all improve our own particular piece of paradise. Feedback can be given via the web at akhaveyoursay.co.nz/ lovelocal

Greg Presland | Local Board Chair Waitākere Ranges Local Board Mobile: 021 998 411 Email: Greg.presland@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

Many years ago, attending a now mostly forgotten arts conference, I ended up with no particular intent in a presentation entitled Listening to the Small Voices.

Readying myself for yet another dissertation on children and creativity, I was captured by the story of an Australian community living on a degraded waterway who were taken through a process of discovering and becoming the elements of their river; its flow, its banks, its underwater wild life (or absence thereof), its bird life and, as importantly, its esoteric ‘spirits’ of the past. Through this slow immersion lasting several days, taking on their chosen persona, creating costumes, soundscapes and voices, they became able to ‘speak’ for the river. The process had a remarkable end result for both the landscape and the community.

The magic of this has stayed with me and I have been thinking of it lately in terms of our arts ecology. I think through this pandemic so far we have shown, as one would expect, immense creativity in keeping the arts alive and thriving in so many incredible ways – both online and off. But we are still locked in a conversation about getting back to a recognisable and familiar arts and cultural life; one that we took so much for granted pre-Covid19. Maybe that is not to be? Maybe we have to listen to some ‘small voices’.

Another train of thought has been prompted by a casual viewing of an episode of America in Colour; old black and white documentary footage that has, by digital magic, been made to look vital and somehow more real. New to me was that during the 1930s depression America, under Roosevelt, invested vast amounts of money in arts and culture in order to stimulate the economy and keep hope alive. Much of it was in infrastructure; community arts and performance venues, playgrounds, public art and, I assume, funding for music, art, theatre and visual arts. It has been gratifying that our government has also acknowledged the transformational power of the arts in responding to our present and looming economic challenges.

A significant funding boost to Creative New Zealand has resulted in some very nimble changes to the way CNZ supports the arts and a rolling series of grant options handled with speed. They are to be congratulated for the way they read the situation and acted.

The Going West Festival team includes (top to bottom) James Littlewood, Robyn Mason, Marigold Janezic, Mark

You Shop We Deliver Easterbrook, Melissa Laing and Marshall Smith.

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Another funding boost has come through the Ministry of Education’s Creatives in Schools programme, which on the surface looks pretty good. But here is where some questions are being asked. The most comprehensive commentary on this is to be found on the Spinoff, in an article by Mark Amery (27/6/20). I most heartily recommend this in-depth analysis. It takes us back to the work of American John Dewey and his passion for the role of integrated art in education. New Zealand adopted his ideas and they flourished here in the mid 20th century. In short, the current Creatives in Schools programme does not yet bring creativity into play as a connective tissue; a bridge to link creative thinking across all areas of learning. We have some great educators lobbying to have a change of direction before the resource is squandered. Mark Amery’s column is brilliant. Please read it.

In the July Art and About I introduced, with some excitement I might say, the new Going West Festival Podcast Platform. What I can now report is that it is up and running and winning accolades from its many listeners. Has it been a challenge? Yes, in the sense that curating, editing, permissioning and publishing is more demanding of time and expertise than could possibly have been envisaged. The Going West team of producer James Littlewood, assistant-producer Sharu Delilkan, curator/archivist Robyn Mason, designer Marigold Janezic, editor/writer Mark Easterbrook, technical manager Melissa Laing and sound engineer Marshall Smith are a well-oiled machine producing three podcasts a week, dropping back to two per week as the team also begins work on a one-off celebratory live event later in the year. It’s very hard to let this 25th anniversary of Going West pass without at least a shot at a gala night and the possibility of ‘something other’. Watch this space.

I recently attended an event to celebrate the many decades of contribution from Ross Clow; councillor until last year and long-time leading figure in the complex structure that is The Trusts Community Foundation. Much was made of all his roles in official capacities – and deservedly so. I would like to acknowledge his passion for the arts and his steadfastness in supporting so many projects and organisations. The Portage Licensing Trust, which he chaired for many years, went against public opinion in backing what their funding support could and did achieve for the arts. Te Uru Contemporary Gallery

would not be there had he not backed it. The Portage Ceramics Awards are largely due to his foresight when the National Fletchers Ceramic Awards bit the dust; as is the Portage Ceramics Trust that cares for the treasure that is the west Auckland clay history. He understood the vision of the McCahon House Museum and Residency project. He was critical to the development of Olympic Park and its sculpture trail and a mover and shaker in the current Te Whau walkway project. It’s a rare thing to have someone who combines heart and head to make a difference.

Stop Press: Te Pou Māori Theatre has ‘turned the shovel’ on the new black box theatre being built in one of the large industrial sheds on the Corban Estate. This is epic stuff! To have managed to keep designing, consenting and funding alive throughout the last few months to this point, when building is able to start, has taken sheer bloody tenacity from the Te Pou whānau. Among this bunch of dedicated people special mention must be made of heritage architect Graeme Burgess who has given endless hours to defining and refining the plans and working with the Te Pou team to hold the vision while keeping to a restrained budget. Graeme is never seen without a notebook and coloured pencils; always drawing the ‘life’ out of the plans. (See below.)

Linda Cooper Councillor for Waitakere

Te Toi Uku Crown Lynn and Clayworks Museum opened its doors in 2015 but it has recently undergone a renovation and refresh.

The museum, administered by the Portage Ceramics Trust and funded by Whau Local Board, Foundation North and the Portage Licensing Trust, now includes a permanent exhibition featuring the clay industries that operated in New Lynn throughout the 20th century, until Monier closed in 2015. It also has over 200 objects on display including an exhibition of Crown Lynn which operated nearby from 1948 until 1989.

Until the 1980s New Lynn was covered in brick and clay factories and the museum aims to engage the local community with the brick and pipe stories. The museum is focussed on the people and the processes that made the ceramics, from bricks and pipes through to the finest dinnerware produced by Crown Lynn.

“We are different from other museums that have Crown Lynn collections in that we also have the tools and equipment that were used to make the products,” says museum curator Rosemary Deane.

The museum is at 8 Ambrico Place, New Lynn (off Rankin Ave), on the original site of an early 20th century brickworks and next to an old kiln.

Potters raise funds

Titirangi Potters is a vibrant pottery club that has been operating for more than 30 years. During lockdown, club members continued their potting, in their homes and studios around West Auckland and it has been running ‘Made in Lockdown’ fund-raisers over recent months, selling works made in lockdown to raise funds for the Salvation Army’s ongoing Foodbank Project.

One member, Doctor Aileen Smith (right), found that pottery was a particularly effective way to de-stress after long days working as a GP in the ‘unprecedented times’ of the Covid pandemic. She started making birds at her home in West Auckland, producing one bird a day, including the tūī pictured right. She completed 33 ceramic birds to acknowledge the 33 days of Level 4 lockdown. She inspired other members to join her in selling work made during lockdown to raise funds for the FoodBank Project, a collaboration between the Salvation Army and Countdown.

The birds, along with over a hundred other sculptural and functional pottery items were offered for sale at the first post-lockdown Titirangi Market at the end of June, raising $1600 in cash for the FoodBank Project. The club also delivered a car boot full of food (right), donated by members and market goers, to the Project. Titirangi Potters were planning another sale of their works from their studio during the July market.

available from Te Uru Gallery, sale ends August 31st

Please feel free to contact me with issues or ideas

021 629 533 linda.cooper@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

135 Albert Street, Auckland Private Bag 92 300, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142

https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/

Embossed Lights susannahbridges.co.nz