11 July 2000

CREATIVE NZ AWARDS FOR AUCKLAND CITY

Auckland City was awarded two of the five categories in the Creative Places Awards by Creative New Zealand.

The city’s Music in Parks series and the Millennium Mural Project came out tops in their respective categories, Art Awards & Art Events and Commissions or Public Art Projects.

Auckland City’s Chief Executive Officer, Bryan Taylor, received the awards when they were made at the Local Government Conference in Christchurch yesterday.

Martin Sutcliffe, Leisure Services manager, says Auckland City is thrilled to receive two of the five awards.

“Music in Parks has continued to develop each year with new ideas, venues and artists. The series enjoyed a 25 per cent increase in audience numbers this past season, a clear indication of its growing popularity.

“Auckland City’s Artstation has achieved a striking result through working with the Western Bays Community Board, a group of artists and diverse community groups on the Millennium Mural Project.”

The judges said Music in Parks was “highly professional” and “energised and enhanced the identity of public places through the arts”.

Music in Parks is a series of free concerts held in the city’s central and suburban parks throughout the summer months, December to March. Sixty-eight concerts were held last summer, attracting 53,170 people.

They ranged in style from jazz to classical, R& B to contemporary ‘Dancing in the Street’ concerts aimed at youth. Performers included renowned artists, up and coming young local musicians and Maori musicians and music.

Music in Parks received great public feedback and enjoyed its first year with a supporting sponsor, Starbucks.

Dave Bishop, Music in Parks event organiser, says: ”It’s wonderful that Music in Parks has been recognised by Creative New Zealand. Auckland City and the sponsor have always believed strongly in the series and its value to Auckland City and the public.”

Of the other award winner, the mural ‘Millennium Walking – Ki Muri Ki Mua’, the judges said it “ties in artists, kids, diversity and good quality art” and was “a useful model for other communities.”

Located by Auckland City’s Artstation building in Ponsonby Road, the mural alludes to the Maori concept of time, in which it is possible to walk backwards into the future, and that an understanding of the present is gained by a view of the past.

Originally suggested by the Western Bays Community Board in 1998, the mural was officially opened on April 1, 2000 by Judith Tizard. Although at first intended as a traditional painted mural, the artists developed the idea into scanning their images onto printed PVC, billboard-style.

Each of the artists worked with a community focus group to develop ideas and themes, including tangata whenua cultural history, settlement/migrational history and our social environment at the turn of the Millennium.

The Creative Places Awards were initiated in 1999 by Creative New Zealand to recognise the significant involvement of local authorities in the arts. Last year Auckland City received a judges’ commendation for the Pasifika Festival.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Martin Sutcliffe, Leisure Services manager, tel: 379 2020.
Dave Bishop, Music in Parks event organiser, tel: 353 9580, email: bishopd@ ak city.govt.nz
John Eaden, Artstation (re the mural), tel: 376 3221, email: artstation@ xtra.co.nz

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