After nearly a year under wraps, Studio One Toi Tū moved back into 1 Ponsonby Road in late August.
The former Police Barracks has undergone seismic strengthening to ensure it stays our community art centre for many years to come. While this was happening, Studio One Toi Tū and the artists whose studios were in the adjoining building had to find temporary digs.
What better place to decamp to than just around the corner in the vibrant Karangahape Road.
With the help of the KBA, Studio One Toi Tū set up below George Courts, on the corner of Mercury Lane. With glass frontage directly on the Strip, the space was highly visible and inviting. And no sooner in than they were involved with one of Karangahape Road’s First Thursdays street festivals. What a welcome.
This new location and visibility enabled them to connect with communities that had been under-represented in the past, especially Māori and Pacifica artists. It also allowed curatorial initiatives, such as the wonderful Niu Gold Mountain exhibition, which brought together the histories of Chinese and Pasifika immigrants, where Chinese in the 1860s sought their 'New Gum San' or 'New Gold Mountain' in the gold mines, while Pasifika in the 1960s searched for the 'Land of Milk and Honey’.
While forging new connections and directions on Karangahape Road, Studio One Toi Tū kept an eye on their building on Ponsonby Road. In partnership with Phantom Billstickers, they installed 10 frames along the site, providing space for artists to present six outdoor exhibitions during the strengthening project.
Siobhan Connelly, Toi Tū Manager, is enthusiastic about bringing the Karangahape Road experiences to Ponsonby: the new audiences and collaborators, joining these two creative hotspots and combining community and curatorial threads into a dynamic arts centre.
On Saturday 16 September, Winter’s End Pottery Market sees over 20 local ceramic artists showing across the whole facility, and five new exhibitions open in the gallery spaces 5pm Wednesday 27 September. See you there.
EVAN WOODRUFFE, Studio Art Supplies
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Published: August 2023