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It's time for a recap! We can officially announce that 2024 was our biggest year yet! We travelled the length of the country, sharing NZ art with art lovers and creating a few more along the way. We started the year in Christchurch at Te Pae, where in style we celebrated our eleventh show with the Canterbury public. This was the first first time we introduced our VIP preview event – giving art lovers the ultimate first look at the artworks on offer at our art shows. The VIP preview has been well received all across Aotearoa, with businesses and art lovers enjoying this special first viewing of the show. Come April, it felt both exciting and surreal to find ourselves in the Capital City for our first show at Tākina. We were super impressed with the support we received from fellow Wellingtonians, and the joy with which this new show was received! In July, in the midst of a chilly Winter, we delivered food for the soul in The City of Sails. The Auckland Art Show found a new home at The Viaduct Events Centre, apart of the busy Wynyard Quarter. A year of firsts brought us to beautiful Queenstown in October. It was hard not to be inspired even before seeing any art! We had no qualms that the public greatly received our show, and we are excited to return this year to Te Pūāhuru, The Queenstown Events Centre.
Alongside our four shows we had the pleasure of introducing a brand-new award into the mix, The Stuff Art Aotearoa Gold Award for Art Excellence - generously sponsored by Stuff Media. Our lead judge, Karl Chitham, Director of The Dowse, headed panels of local judges at each show to select one finalist from each location. With a single national winner, artist Shona Mackenzie, selected from the four show finalists.
It was a wonderful way to wrap up the year back in Christchurch, where Auckland finalist Shona Mackenzie was announced as the first ever Stuff Art Aotearoa Gold Award Winner! We had a fabulous lunch with Shona to celebrate her amazing win.
View the Stuff Art Aotearoa Gold Award Gallery: https://www.artshowsacrossaotearoa.co.nz/stuff-gold-awards-2024
We happily announce that artists, Annie Robertson and Lisa Watkins were selected by the TLC as the scholarship recipients for 2024 and are now studying towards their respective diplomas in Creativity!
Our partnership with The Learning Connexion for 2024 , where the TLC creates unique scholarship opportunities for artists exhibiting with us at Art Shows Across Aotearoa. These Scholarships are designed for artists who wish to enhance their lives through creativity but are struggling to do so due to financial hardship or the cost of living.
This is what Annie had to say on hearing the well received news,
“Of course it is an honour to have been chosen for this scholarship and I feel very grateful to have been given this opportunity which has only ever previously been a dream. I was very excited ( and frightened ) to start and only just over a month in my work has become more fearless and has a greater personal meaning. I already see a profound change in my work as I work with more discipline and intent. The next two years are looking pretty exciting for my art practice and I am looking forward to the journey. Sincere and heartfelt to the Art Show and Learning Connection for making this scholarship available.
We wish Annie and Lisa all the best, and we will be following their progress with their studies at The Learning Connexion.
We had a big emphasis on showcasing large art this year, we are super lucky to be able to exhibit at locations that give us the perfect backdrops to do so. In our Go Green journey with the support form Go Media, we introduced reusable bags and embraced ways to reduce the plastic waste from our business. Amazing celebrity judges were in attendance at each of our shows including Chris Lynch, Paul Izzard, Tanea Heke and Tom Webster!! We can say that we sold more artwork for artists than ever before! Now, before we settle in to enjoy the rest of the summer, we'd like to say a big thank you to those artists who exhibit with us, to family members, those working behind-the-scenes, to our partners and to the public who have visited us throughout the year. May your new year be filled with colour, we know ours will be!
Our exhibition year begins in Windy Wellington from the 29th Feb- 2nd March. We can’t wait to see you there, and we will have art for everyone!
Until then,
Happy New Year from ASAA!
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