Murrays Bay School: Creating Community Cohesion

Creating Community Cohesion

On Saturday the 6th of December 2014, the Sunnynook Community is hosting a day called “Painting in the Car Park”. This day will involve artists from Sunnynook and surrounding suburbs creating murals for the grey walls of the Sunnynook Bus Station. The artists are all creating works based on criteria gathered from the Sunnynook Community, and will form a timeline of 12 murals altogether.

This initiative has been organized by Fleur Knight and Rebecca Baird from Murrays Bay School and originated from a safety audit Rebecca’s students conducted on Sunnynook Bus Station. During their audit, the students made recommendations for how the Sunnynook Bus Station could be improved. Their audit recommended that the toilet door be made easier to open, that access to the stormwater drain was too easy for taggers and that the grey walls of the bus station were “lifeless”. After presenting to Auckland Council on these recommendations the students surveyed local residents and businesses, to find out whether the Sunnynook Community wanted murals, and how the murals could depict the culture of Sunnynook.

During their survey the students from Murrays Bay School found out that not only did the residents and businesses want murals, they were also prepared to fund this initiative.

Local artists such as Jarod Murray, Alastair Blain and Hayley Garcia have joined forces with artists from Murrays Bay such as Sue Jamieson, Monica __ and students from room 25 at Murrays Bay School. These artists will be creating artworks in the carpark outside the Countdown Supermarket in Sunnynook.

This initative has also been supported by the Sunnynook Community Centre and has generated interest from local businesses who are funding resources to make this day possible.

Countdown Supermarket has helped with advertising, a venue and refreshments for the artists. Mitre 10 Mega have supplied the plywood. Guthrie Bowron are providing all the paint, and Bunnings Constellation Drive have supplied polyurethane.

The murals will be presented to the Auckland Council after completion and will be part of the Sunnynook landscape for years to come.

ENDS

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