22 reclaimed CBD parks on Wellington’s PARK(ing) Day

Media Release 10 March 2015

Take a stroll past 22 reclaimed CBD parks on Wellington’s PARK(ing) Day

On Wednesday 11 March the Wellington Sculpture Trust, in association with the Wellington City Council is holding Wellington’s version of PARK(ing) Day. Providing temporary public open spaces one parking spot at a time.

The Wellington Sculpture Trust called for expressions of interest to take over a parking space for a day and 17 Wellingtonians answered the call.

Wellington Sculpture Trust chair, Sue Elliott, said: “Given our intention to start small we have been thrilled at the number of entries and, more specifically the calibre of the concepts submitted. We have received a wide and imaginative array of entries from people from a variety of spheres: artists, architects, students, businesses, creative members of the public and various workplaces.”

PARK(ing) Day will run from 8am - 6pm on March 11and be located around the central city, forming a walk from the Railway Station to Cuba Street including: Bunny Street, Waring Taylor Street, Johnston Street, Victoria Street, Wakefield Street, Lower Cuba Street, Dixon Street, and Swan Lane.

To make it easy, at every PARK a map will be available to take you on your PARK(ing) Day journey. The Wellington Sculpture Trust is also running a ‘people’s choice’ award for the day where the winner will receive $500. You will be able to view all the installations and vote through the Dominion Post website: www.dompost.co.nz on 12 March, or email your choice to the Wellington Sculpture Trust at wellingtonsculpture@xtra.co.nz.

PARK(ing) Day is an annual global event which started in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco. Since then it has evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals creating new forms of temporary public spaces in urban settings around the world.

In the northern hemisphere the event takes place on September 20, but the attempt in 2013 to hold the event was thwarted by torrential rain and gale force winds; hence the move to a date in the southern hemisphere’s summer.

In the case of wet weather the Parks will be on display in the Renouf Foyer within the Michael Fowler Centre, the venue kindly provided by Positively Wellington Venues, from 9.00am – 5.00pm.

Map: Parking_day_2015_map_hand_out2.pdf

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