Dr Carole Shepheard, Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts at Auckland University and holder of ONZM for her contribution to the visual arts is going to open the 2015 Mercury Bay Art Escape Open Studio Tour at Hot Water Beach on the 6th of March 2015 at Hot Waves Café. The launch is usually sold out well before and is a major event on the Peninsula Calendar.

Tickets will be on sale through the Art Escape website from mid-December. www.mercurybayartescape.com Carole is an artist, educator and writer living and working in Kawhia where she runs Te Puti Art Studio. Best known for her printmaking, her work is held in national and international collections and she is presently exhibiting in Sydney. Mercury Bay Art Escape Trust is delighted to welcome such a renowned artist to its Open Studio Tour and exhibition launch in 2015.

Carole enjoys being part of a small community and puts particular value on the work being done by artists in places outside large cities where she believes new energy is found and ideas are expressed in individual and challenging ways. Her experience and beliefs fit well with the Art Escape Trust mission to promote and develop the growth of the visual arts in Mercury Bay in particular and the wider Coromandel.

The Mercury Bay Art Escape Open Studio Tour showcases the outstanding artistic talent of approximately 50 established and emerging artists from Kuaotunu to Tairua in the Eastern Coromandel.

It is an opportunity for residents and visitors to interact with the artists in their studios and purchase artwork direct from artists’ studios. Artists’ studios are open the first two weekends of March, March 7 -8 and March 14-15, 2015.

The new edition of the ‘Guide’, an invaluable resource with easy to read maps, artists’ profiles’ galleries, cafés, B & B’s and local tours will be available early December from the Art Escape website. www.mercurybayartescape.com www.mercurybayartescape.com www.facebook.com/mercurybayartescape