Mural And Arts Festival A Major Drawcard For Katikati

Mural And Arts Festival A Major Drawcard For Katikati

Katikati is renowned as New Zealand’s mural town and organisers of this year’s New Zealand Mural Contest and Arts Festival are hoping to attract thousands of visitors from across the upper North Island.

Katikati’s NZ Mural Contest and Arts Festival

Festival organiser Jacqui Knight, from Katch Katikati, says the biennial event has traditionally been run on a small budget but this year twice as much will be spent to help make the occasion bigger and better than ever before.

“This year’s festival marks 25 years since the first outdoor mural was painted in Katikati,” Jacqui says.

There are now almost 60 artworks on permanent display around town, including murals, sculptures, carvings, mosaics and tapestries.

Bigger Reach

Organisers are aiming to attract as many people as possible to the 2015 festival (which runs from 29th September until 4th October). The highly-anticipated mural competition will be a highlight, and photo, sculpture and song-writing contests will also be held.

“We’re really trying to make a big effort and push the promotion of this year’s festival out to a two hour radius to encourage more people to come into the district,” Jacqui says.

“They can make it a day trip or spend the night. We have a big open air market on theSaturday, lots of street performers, activities for kids, exhibitions and displays throughout town. The atmosphere is really amazing.”

Artistic creations underway at previous arts festivals in Katikati

Spreading The Word

BayTrust has given Katikati’s Mural Contest and Arts Festival $10,000 which will be used to cover advertising costs and promote the event.

Jacqui says she was “absolutely thrilled” to receive news of the grant which will help pay for programme booklets, mail drops, flyers, website and social media promotion, as well as newspaper and radio advertising.

“It has made a huge difference to be able to make a definite plan. When you get something like $10,000 it gives you a lot of security and confidence that you can plan and move forward.”

Painting The Town

Katikati Open-Air Art president Steve Graveson says the festival is now considered a major forum for outdoor art in New Zealand and the mural content is always hugely popular.

“We’ve had some really high caliber mural artists from around New Zealand and Australia compete in the past and their artwork is really amazing.”

This year’s theme is ‘Nga Taonga o Aotearoa – The Natural Treasures of New Zealand’. From pre-entries received, six artists will be chosen to paint their murals at different locations around town during the festival week.

Each entry will be painted onto a 1.2 x 2.4m piece of plywood. The winning artist will receive $5000 and be invited to re-create their mural on the side of a building in Jocelyn St. The remaining entries will be put up for sale.

“This year’s winning mural will replace one of our oldest murals called Primal Aotearoawhich was painted in 1996 and has badly faded,” Steve explains. “We thought this was a good opportunity to replace it and the original artist, Bodhi Vincent, is keen to enter this year’s contest again.”

This year’s winning mural will replace the ‘Primal Aotearoa’ mural on the side of this Katikati building

Steve is looking forward to seeing the different artistic interpretations of this year’s theme and says people are encouraged to come and watch the murals take shape.

“It’s very entertaining. You get to see the painting as it develops which is a process you don’t often get to see. The artists are not only expected to paint in public but also intermingle and talk with the crowd as they work, so it’s well worth coming to watch.”

A community art project – which everyone will be welcome to participate in – will also be held during the festival, and details of this year’s event are currently being finalised.

“It’s really about encouraging art in the community and we want people to see new things. We’re looking at doing a few different things that Katikati hasn’t seen before. It’s a week-long celebration that people are really looking forward to!”

ENDS

© Scoop Media