• 
• 

The Tauranga Arts Festival’s Visual Arts programme was launched at The Drawing Room on Sunday afternoon. Sonya Korohina, curator of the Public, Private & Pop-Ups Exhibition - a highlight of the Visual Arts Programme – revealed to the crowd that the first art work available to view for that exhibition was Ani Fourie’s just-completed work on the window of The Drawing Room (107 Mount Maunganui Road).

Supporters, artists, organisers and guests were also presented with the Visual Arts programme, which sits alongside the Writers & Readers and Main Festival programmes to round off the trio of publications outlining what’s in store for the 2013 Festival.

A new work by Gregor Kregar is a huge highlight: the Atrium of the Tauranga Art Gallery will be home to Foucault’s Pendulum (commissioned by Tauranga Art Gallery for Tauranga Arts Festival). This site-specific, suspended installation made from aluminium combined with recycled neon lights is named after the French physicist Léon Foucault who, in 1851, designed an experimental device to demonstrate the rotation of Earth.

The Public, Private & Pop-ups Exhibition links galleries, artists, students, retail spaces, restaurants and arts organisations to create one exhibition that you can discover Tauranga with. Artists involved include Jacquelyn Greenbank, John Roy, Nicol-Sanders O’Shea, Gregor Kregar, Beau Cotton, Seung Yul Oh, Steve Carr, Daniel von Sturmer, Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano. Participating galleries, organisations and pop-up artists include: Baycourt, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, The Cargo Shed, Creative Tauranga, Gallery 59, Gow Langsford Gallery, High Street Boutique, Paper Plane, Post Bank, Sisters Boutique, Tauranga Art Gallery, The Drawing Room, The Incubator, Trinity Wharf, Zeus Gallery and Zohar.

Exhibition curator, Sonya Korohina, says ‘With over 80 artists across 30 exhibitions, you will need the full 10 days of the festival to make the most of this free programme! I hope art lovers make the most of our guided walking tours and free art bus’. The full details and downloadable map are available from www.taurangafestival.co.nz.

The inaugural Festival Front Yard Public Art Installation is YOURS, Truly by Laura Marsh. The installation will be in Masonic Park, out the front of the TV3 Crystal Palace to be enjoyed 24/7. The fence-high letters spell out ‘Yours’. With the letter ‘Y’ members of the public are invited to leave an item on one of the many hooks for others to take away. YOURS, Truly is featured on www.boosted.org, New Zealand’s platform for crowd-funding the arts.

This project is close to the Festival’s heart because it encompasses the nature of what a festival is all about: temporary, surprising, inclusive, stimulating and fun. You can contribute to YOURS, Truly (the fence that doesn’t keep anyone out) by going to www.boosted.org. This project is all about art that actively inhabits our public spaces and provides an extraordinary experience for those who encounter it.

Art takes over on Saturday 26 October with the Festival’s Big Yellow Community Day. Guerrilla knitting, the Little Big Markets, Mauao Performing Arts Centre, Zombie Bride Flash Mobs, a Symphonic Surprise, the Human Library project, street theatre and performances from Tauranga Girls’ and Boys’ Colleges will all take place from 10am – 2pm in and around the CBD.

Art Lovers will want to take a guided tour on the Big Yellow Art Bus which takes passengers around selected shows in the Public, Private and Pop-Ups Exhibition around Tauranga and the Mount. Full information on the Visual Arts programme, Big Yellow Community Day and the rest of the Festival is on www.taurangafestival.co.nz

Photography by pushinguppixels.co.nz

About Tauranga Arts Festival: Tauranga Arts Festival is governed by the Tauranga Arts Festival Trust and the Board chaired by Glenn Dougal. Trustees are Rhonda Hewlett, Sue Hoffart, Kathryn Lellman, Debby Meldrum, Jon Murie, Bob Sutton and Theresa Tingey.

Tauranga Arts Festival would like to acknowledge the support of major funders TECT; gold sponsors: Port of Tauranga, Stufkens + Chambers Architects, Trinity Wharf Tauranga; gold media sponsors: The Radio Network, Bay of Plenty Times, TV3, Mediaworks; silver sponsors ANZ Private, NZET, Ronayne Hollister-Jones Lellman; and major grants from Tauranga City Council and Creative New Zealand. They are joined by a further 80 generous bronze sponsors, business and private patrons. For the full list see www.taurangafestival.co.nz