"Give a Kid a Blanket" says Tauranga Art Gallery

Martine Rolls of Tauranga Art Gallery with donated blankets. Photo/George Novak

THE team at the Tauranga Art Gallery is supporting the initiative "Give a Kid a Blanket" this month, which is an art and community project by West Auckland-based artists Donna Turtle Sarten and Bernie Harfleet.

Their aim is simple. They want to collect as many blankets as they can and give them out to kids who are cold. Along the way, Donna and Bernie will be photographing people who donate a blanket and the photographs will be used in a new exhibition.

"Donna and Bernie's photographic exhibition Norm and Noeleen is on show at our Cube gallery space until August 2, and when we found out what they are working on at the moment we decided to give them a hand," says the gallery's marketing and media co-ordinator Martine Rolls.

"We've started collecting in the first week of July, and have used our social media platforms and newsletters to promote it. Since then, we have received around 70 blankets and the Tauranga Rotary Club has also offered to help. The generosity of our community is truly heartwarming," she says.

Most of the blankets will be donated to families in Auckland, as that is where the artists are based, but the Salvation Army in Mount Maunganui has also been in touch with Martine and asked if some of the families they are working with could benefit from this imitative, too.

"They told me that one family with eight children and another with three kids including a baby are in great need of blankets. They have been given beds, but the Sallies are all out of blankets. A few of the children have health issues and it's important that they stay warm.

"The point is to give blankets to children who need them so we will certainly help them out," Martine says.

Artist and project organiser, Harfleet, says the idea for their photographic exhibition around "Give a Kid a Blanket" is to show the givers, the people who have organised the drop-off points, and those who work in the different agencies and groups rather than the kids themselves.

"We feel that the recipients of these things are the ones usually shown, and in this way they are portrayed as victims," he says.

"Donna and I want to do this differently."

Harfleet mentions that artists have recorded what is happening around them and in their communities and society since the time of the cave drawings.

"This is what's happening now, and everyone involved is part of a living artwork," he says.
"Donna and I make art about social and political topics, both individually and together," Harfleet says, and he explains that this initiative follows their combined sculpture project "Feed the Kids Too".

"That work was about the 83,000 children who go to school hungry each day in New Zealand. It was shown at NZ Sculpture onShore, and consisted of 6000 lunch boxes hung in six Pohutakawa trees," he says.

At the end of the show, Harfleet and Turtle Sarten gave the boxes, along with lunch, to 6000 kids.

Martine Rolls. Photo/George Novak

"Along the way we met many children, and adults, in need and struggling. We also met people working to support these people in different groups and ways in the community. The impetus for 'Give a Kid a Blanket' came out of this," he says.

The artists started the project in mid-June, using Facebook. "Its a simple idea, people give us a blanket we get it to a child that needs it. We do this with the help of the community and public health nurses," he says.

Harfleet says the response has been, and continues to be, amazing. People from across the country are offering blankets, duvets, and sleeping bags and one has been posted from Melbourne.

"Strangers and friends are offering help. We now have 20 drop off points cross the greater Auckland area, and the Tauranga Art Gallery is officially our 21st drop point, which is amazing," he says.

"Bernie and Donna will be in Tauranga on Saturday, August 1 for an Artist Talk around Norm and Noeleen, and they will take the blankets collected here back with them," says Ms Rolls. "If you have a blanket, sleeping bag or duvet you don't need and would like to donate, please drop it off at the gallery before August 1. If you have a blanket that you think is bit tatty or old, that's okay, too. They are collecting them to give away to a dog rescue and a cat rescue."

Find Give a Kid a Blanket on Facebook for more details.

Accepted are: Blankets, duvets, sleeping bags and quilts.

Details
What: Give a Kid a Blanket collection
Where: Drop off at Tauranga Art Gallery
When: Collection until July 31. Open 7 days, 10am-4.30pm