What’s different this year is that we will be joining the other established art precincts and extending the great work done by the K’Road Business Association to incorporate Grey Lynn’s galleries, foodies and designers as part of this week-long celebration.
Project managed by Director Deborah White of Whitespace Contemporary Art, the objective of Artweek is to create opportunities for artists and promote visual arts while creating much greater public access and awareness of the visual arts community. Deborah has been a major proponent of extending Artweek to Grey Lynn and she views doing so as a natural extension of the collaboration that has occurred between K’Road, Ponsonby Road and Arch Hill for some time. With her backing, it is great that we now have the opportunity to integrate the whole Grey Lynn visual arts community into an established Auckland-wide event.
In announcing the extension of Artweek to incorporate the whole of Grey Lynn at the recent GLBA Ozone Coffee networking function, Deborah noted the opportunity we now have to build significant collaboration between the largest concentration of visual artists in the Auckland area, namely Grey Lynn, and one of the real cultural and economic drivers for the city. Reflecting on last year’s Artweek, she said partnerships that have developed with the wider business community have created a vibrant creative sector that is good for business. The creative arts bring a sense of belonging, ownership of a place and a way of building lines of communication between diverse groups.
So what does this mean and how is GLBA going to assist in growing the collaboration?
The vision we have is to bring together all of the galleries and artists within the Grey Lynn district. So, if you have a post code 1021 then we want to know about you and we want to know whether you want to participate in Artweek. Make contact with us at info@glba.co.nz and include a quick introduction of what you do and how you’d like to participate plus a contact email or phone number. We’ll be holding a workshop/gathering for all participants under Deborah’s guidance to maximise engagement.
We also want to hear from restaurants who are prepared to engage and become part of the Grey Lynn Artweek experience. The idea here is to leverage gallery opening times with opportunities to experience the flavours and culinary talents of Grey Lynn. Again, under Deborah’s experience and guidance we’ll be able to build exposure for your business and leverage the exposure gained by having many new visitors to our area. We already know 85% of people surveyed attended a hospitality venue while attending Artweek events last year.
The third area is our specialist clothing designers – our goal is also to build an exciting collaboration between designers and leverage the many opportunities Artweek offers to attract new clients.
GLBA’s very clear objective is to build a trail throughout the district linking galleries, designers and foodies and maximise the opportunities created by an already extremely established Artweek. Designers, if you are interested also get in touch with us on info@glba.co.nz
We see our role as facilitating this collaboration but we want each of the businesses participating to step up and take ownership. GLBA is delighted to act as the catalyst for this and work under the guidance of Deborah White. As Paul Stephenson reflected, we have been searching for some time for a concept that brings the GL district together – we think this is it.
Join the movement and become part of the Grey Lynn Project – a collaboration between the community and businesses within the Grey Lynn 1021 district.