Well, it hasn’t been entirely fun these past few days for the ARTbop team fabricating the promotional sign stencils for the Affordable Art & Artisan Fair. It wasn’t as easy as it looked! While it wasn’t entirely fun trying to work out the letter size, spaces, sketching them in on the large strips of blue plastic sheeting and then using craft knives to cut the shapes: it was an enjoyable team effort with lots of laughs.
Our team led by Katikati artist, ARTbop contributor and ARTbop’s AAAFair project leader, Birgitt Shannon got the job done! In the Black Sheep Bar & Grill Conference Room, Birgitt, Colleen, Pauline and Rosemary cut, painted and sprayed – we’re not quite at Paradox Outside but we’ve produced a series of promotional signs you could see from Mars.
The doorway sign for the site of the Affordable Art & Artisan Fairs at the Black Sheep Whakamarama
Why are such already busy people making such an effort? We all believe it is important for local creatives to have access to opportunities to display their creative work. And it’s not just “pictures and painting”. The criteria for participation are that the work is not imported and/or mass-produced and that it is individually created art or artisan product. At the first Fair we had product as diverse as boutique chocolates, repurposed woollen blanket clothing, creative fibre and felting, indoor plants in recycled containers, unique graphic designed paper and cards, hand-crafted wood, paintings, photography, glass art and of course original paintings.
The work of Whakamarama glass artist Tania Minnell
The Black Sheep’s Peta Clavis and her associates are supporting the local creative community in providing their venue as the regular site for the Fair. (You can see how appropriate the Black Sheep is in Birgitt’s video re-published below). The Fair is also creating an additional business opportunity for local creatives and a regular art and creativity tourism event in the Western Bays.
Birgitt Shannon in her gallery gazebo at the Art & Artisan Fair
The Affordable Art & Artisan Fairs are held on the last Sunday of every month (some months have five Sundays!) The next Fair will be on Sunday 28th January 2018. If you came along to the first one at the end of November, come again – we’ve even more exhibitors!
NEXT: Affordable Art & Artisan Fair at the Black Sheep Bar & Grill, corner State Highway 2 and Plummers Point Road, Sunday 28th January 2018 11am to 3pm. There is a large parking area adjacent to the Black Sheep, clean toilets, great food, coffee and drinks!
ARTbop would also like to thank Richard Hubbard and Graham Belcher of Harcourts Advantage Reality Rural Team at Bethlehem for their support of this project and their continuing support of ARTbop. Both Richard and Graham are longtime Western Bays and Tauranga rural residents. You can contact them through: richardhubbard@harcourts.co.nz DD 07 578 1227 M 027 564 2864
Rosemary Balu. Rosemary Balu is the founding and current Managing Editor of ARTbop. Rosemary has arts and law degrees from the University of Auckland. She has been a working lawyer and has participated in a wide variety of community activities where information gathering, submission writing, community advocacy and education have been involved. Interested in all forms of the arts since childhood Rosemary is focused on further developing and expanding multi-media ARTbop as the magazine for all the creative arts in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
AND WHILE YOU’RE HERE! CHECK OUT OUR RECENT ARTICLES AND VIDEOS AND WATCH OUT FOR WHAT WE’VE GOT LINED UP TO PUBLISH: videos of a stylish Western Bays vintage boutique, the art of Whakamarama flowers and foliage and a quick conversation with the hardworking Birgitt Shannon.
If you would like to submit a contribution to ARTbop you can forward your submission to editor@artbop.co.nz as a text document. Images are to be forwarded as low resolution jpgs (about 750 kb maximum) not included in the body of the article. However, please indicate in your text where each image is to appear and indicate the image you would prefer as the featured slider header.
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