Shelley Vitali’s up-cycled glass flowers
With around 100 people attending, Auckland Mayor Len Brown opened the new Art Centre in Helensville on Friday 23rd October, timed to tie in with the Labour Weekend festival, Arts in the ‘Ville. Centre Manager Sally Lush thanked Local Board Members Brenda Steel and Phelan Pirrie for having the vision to create the purpose built space and spoke about the history of Art Kaipara and the development of the Art Centre. In his speech the Mayor praised Centre Coordinator
Sally Lush, Mayor Len Brown, Pauline Denton and on the right,
local board member Greg Sayers
Pauline Denton for her recent nomination in the Access Arts Award for Creative Spaces through her work with the disabled. He also spoke of other successes within the local community before declaring the Art Centre officially open.
Over the weekend good numbers of visitors called in to see the exhibition, check out the new space and meet the people involved in getting it up and running. Sculptor Andrew Denton led a session with clay on Sunday, with participants including three generations from one family.
Bites and Pisces by Andrew Denton
The current exhibition runs until November 22nd and features a series of 12-inch square canvases created by people who have supported the Art Centre over the years. The three-dimensional works exhibited are in a variety of shapes and sizes, including Kaukapakapa artist Shelly Vitali’s up-cycled glass works, metal artist Andrew Denton’s work on consumerism ‘Bites and Pisces’ and work by Sally Lush featuring floating balls of discarded toys. A multi-coloured metal kete by local artist Jeff Thomson is also featured. The Creative Communities scheme has funded an artist’s talk to be given by Jeff at his studio on Awaroa Road at 7pm on Tuesday 17th November.