Wanaka To Celebrate Homegrown Creative Excellence With Inspiring New Event ‘Toi’

A collective group of artistically minded individuals, businesses, plus community groups have come together with the goal of championing Wanaka’s creative sector, with a weekend packed full of events October 17 – 18, 2020.

Toi will be a celebration of creativity, design and excellence for both locals and visitors to enjoy and will feature two days of workshops, exhibitions, and performance immediately following the 3 Lakes Cultural Trust’s inaugural Renewart event and just before the WAO Reset Summit, rounding out what will be a month long celebration of ideas and creativity for Wanaka.

Wānaka has a thriving design scene and is fast building a reputation as a hub for creative thought, says Ignite Wanaka Executive Officer Naomi Lindsay.

“This initiative will further strengthen this growing reputation and shine a light on the incredible talent and businesses we have within the community. Creativity and design-led thinking has also been proven to aid with recovery after crisis.”

“Great design not only solves problems, but also creates new opportunities. But most importantly design can reveal plausible futures for us to choose; something we need more than ever” says, Monique Kelly from Revology, one of the many businesses involved in Toi.

The Māori word 'toi' often translates as knowledge, skill, excellence, source, origin, or mastery and the collective engaged local designer Britt Davies from Studio Acht to create the brand identity and the result truly conveys the essence of the event says, Nicola King Marketing Executive for Lake Wanaka Tourism.

“We are inviting the community and our visitors to come and check out the world-class talent we have right here in Wanaka.

It’s going to be a fabulous weekend! With an incredible cross-section of artists and designers, from photographers, interior, graphic, jewellery, through to fashion, taking part in this inaugural event, come along hear their stories, check out their stores or get involved with one of the many workshops being held.

Information about the programme can be found here. More on the brand story can be found here.

The collective behind Toi is made up of representatives from Lake Wanaka Tourism, LINK, 3 Lakes Cultural Trust, Festival of Colour, ignite Wanaka Chamber of Commerce, and Wanaka design retailers.

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