Action-Packed Year for Applied Arts Department

11 December 2014

Action-Packed Year for Applied Arts Department

NorthTec arts students have had another action-packed year with many opportunities to engage with arts communities and creative industries.

The year started off with a bang with several students working as technicians for Kokiri Putahi, the 7th Gathering of International Indigenous Visual Artists at Kohewhata Marae in Kaikohe. Students found the opportunity to work alongside world-renowned artists inspirational. For some students the experience has been life-changing with artists offering ongoing career mentoring.

NorthTec photography students were the official photographers for the Ngāpuhi Festival in Kaikohe. Later in the year these students were photographic assistants for the production of photographs for the Ngāpuhi annual report.

Being an art student means being critically engaged and active. Students had opportunities throughout the year to exhibit their work both locally and internationally. A print exchange between NorthTec and The Oklahoma Arts Institute in America saw Year 3 students produce prints which were then exhibited in Oklahoma and in Whangarei.

NorthTec art students have exhibited widely throughout the year in group exhibitions at various local galleries such as The Great Plate, Laboratorium, illuminART, 123 , The Carnival of Life, Xmas Eclectica, Matariki: MAKE, 2250 and the Year 3 graduate exhibition at NorthTec, Exit Strategy.

Alternative space exhibitions were held throughout the community as well. Students Paora Tiatoa and Rodrigo Rozas were kept busy throughout the year with ongoing commissions for their art, and Tash Mason and Dennis O'Keefe with commissions for their design work. Student work was also represented at the Toi Māori Art Market in Wellington.

The Art Academy - a secondary-tertiary partnership - ran for the first time at NorthTec in 2014, and the year was enriched by the relationships forged between local high schools and the Applied Arts department. The 13 bright young artists of the Art Academy ventured near and far, learning about the creative industries through plenty of studio and gallery visits.

Applied Arts students also visited galleries and museums locally and in Auckland, with a penultimate trip for all students to Alan Gibbs' world-renowned Sculpture Park in the Kaipara.

NorthTec's own state-of-the-art Geoff Wilson Gallery offers a varied annual calendar of exhibitions. The highlights of 2014 included Mahuru - the Toi Whakataa Māori Printmakers collective exhibition, the Jeff Thomson exhibition and Matatau, a selection of works by undergraduate and postgraduate students of Te Putahi a Toi.

Digital arts students had the opportunity to gain industry experience working alongside local TV station Channel North as part of the news production crew. A selection of student work was showcased at the end of year exhibition, D.A.M Apple Pi.

Learning about the commercial and professional practice aspects of being an artist or designer through working directly with the arts and wider community is integral to the Applied Arts programme at NorthTec. The Applied Arts team would like to thank all those involved for allowing such full engagement and professional opportunities for our students, and look forward to what we can achieve together in 2015.

ENDS

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