Artwork Auction Leads to Scholarship

Artwork Auction Leads to Scholarship

Not only the Blind Foundation will benefit from the auction of a piece of artwork at the PrintNZ conference in Wairakei, but a scholarship will be created to help a person involved in the print industry achieve a training opportunity.

Delegates at the Ink In Our Veins conference made bids for a unique piece of NZ artwork created by renowned Hawkes Bay artist and printer Neville Smith, which eventually went for $5000 to the Blue Star Print Group.

Initially a percentage of the winning bid was going to be used to kick start a scholarship, but Mr Smith then offered to donate a further $2000 to the scholarship, allowing the full $5000 to assist the visually-impaired.

PrintNZ President Warren Leslie said this was a magnificent gesture which would assist printing industry people in an ongoing way. “The generosity of Neville, and of our delegates who bid for the artwork, means that we have sufficient funds to create a training opportunity for one or more people who may not have been able to afford to go down that path.

“The door is open for others, perhaps senior or retired people with close connections to the print industry, to also contribute and ensure that the scholarship will be permanently ongoing in the future.”

PrintNZ is expected to discuss the scholarship structure at a strategy meeting late this month, with a view to launching it next year.

Neville’s artwork is a collage made from wooden type dating from as far back as the 1840s and the colonisation of New Zealand. All the letters in the alphabet and all numerals, 120 pieces in total, appear in this collage which features elements used in letterpress printing, brass, lead, and wood with a copper electrode. The collage appears in the commemoration book of the 100 years of PrintNZ “Ink in Our Veins”.

Neville is a compositor by trade and has one of the largest collections of wooden type in NZ. He has produced over 30 collages in the past 10 years, winning the Telecom Art Awards in 2000.

ENDS

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