Project involves community

The Twelve Trees of Christmas adorn Tauranga CBD and the waterfront. Photo/Baz Mantis Photography

The Twelve Days of Christmas has been the perfect project for the Incubator team as it involves maximum community input.

The Twelve Days is a collaborative art project which has involved 20 local community groups and artists helping to decorate Christmas trees which now adorn the waterfront and Tauranga CBD.

Incubator Creative Hub director Simone Anderson says this was exactly the type of challenge she loves.

"The team at the Incubator roll their eyes at these ambitious projects and accept resignedly and secretly love every minute! This is exactly the type of project we love ... to involve as much of the community as we can."

Simone was convinced the project would demonstrate the power of art.

"In this case a glue to join together a great team of people from all over the Bay, it empowered six individual team leaders to go forth, research and facilitate creative workshops with schools and community groups, it gave a wonderful opportunity to highlight the talents of Toi Ohomoi arts graduate Ashlei Luckman-Taupaki (who was commissioned to design the kowhaiwhai design).

"The danger here is that we have all these creative graduates and no leads into their fields. Creating opportunities like this is a commitment the Incubator makes to have arts practitioners valued as highly as any other artisan tradesperson."

The team were determined to reach as many possible from age to geographical area, from Omokoroa to Te Puke schools to senior groups. The Incubator Creative Hub will be featuring all the groups and their trees on their Facebook page.