A hands-on, get-into-it exhibition coming to Hastings City Art Gallery is getting Boosted.

Boosted is an on-line arts crowd-funding portal, backed by the Arts Foundation and run by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. The five-year-old philanthropic platform aims to “bring artists and audiences closer together than ever”. On the site a gallery or artist can list a project, the amount they need and a close date. The range of projects is eclectic, from theatre and film-making, to exhibitions, gallery support, and the funding of educational art trips.

On Boosted, Hastings City Art Gallery’s Play: Art that makes you move project, has so far raised a quarter of the $3000 it needs – with 17 days left to go.

Play: Art that makes you move is scheduled for the end of March. It comes on the back of last year’s hugely successful child-focussed Lego exhibition and #keeponkimiora, the latter an exhibition of photos taken by Kimi Ora Community School students who had been tutored by a professional photographer. Both had proved hugely popular with children and their families.

As an ‘extra’, to the year’s exhibition schedule, ‘Play’ is being part-funded from the gallery’s budget, funded by Hastings District Council, and part crowd-funded through Boosted.

The exhibition will present artist Seung Yul Oh’s ‘Periphery’ work, on loan from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, made up of around 40 giant, yellow inflated capsules that visitors will be able to move through. Sara Hughes is designing hundreds of wooden blocks inspired by the architecture of buildings in Heretaunga Street, and Hawke’s Bay local Campbell Tamahina Burns will construct a wall-sized instrument that visitors can play.

Through Boosted donors can give from as little as $5, which is tax deductible. It is also fun, says Hastings gallery director Toni MacKinnon. “It is a great way to support the arts, and in this case, if successful, bring an extra youngster-focused exhibition to our district.”

The gallery is also trying out another on-line platform, Thunderclap, which is designed to share a message on a mega-scale. “It’s about building our audience by attracting new people through ‘crowd-speaking’. It invites people to share their social reach by all sharing a message with their social media friends at the same pre-arranged time.”

Encouraging children and their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles into the gallery helps building the gallery audiences of tomorrow, says gallery development coordinator Tryphena Cracknell – and there are benefits for the audience too.

“It’s been proven to be good for your health. Studies have shown that a trip to an art gallery can lower anxiety and

depression as well as boosting critical thinking skills. For children in particular, art plays an important role in socio-emotional development, building empathy and encouraging social interactions. The artworks we’re planning for ‘Play’ will offer physical benefits as well – fine motor skills, music, coordination – and most of all, it is going to be a lot of fun,” says Cracknell.

To support the exhibition through Boosted see: www.boosted.org.nz/projects/play-art-that-makes-you-move

ENDS

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