St Peter’s Anglican Church to house mural contest images

Brendan Gibbs with the hero images in the background.

Another permanent artwork has been added to the Katikati Open Air Arts (KOAA) collection.

The 2022 New Zealand Mural Contest images have become permanent artwork number 87 and the nine images can be found on the west wall of St Peter’s Anglican Church, facing Carisbrooke St.

The contest involved nine artists who were allocated a Katikati “unsung hero” of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown to portray.

Before the original portraits were presented to their subjects last year, the KOAA took high-resolution photographs of each portrait to reproduce on vinyl, frame and mount on boards.

The images are on the west wall of the church.

President Steve Graveson says the artwork will be “an ongoing reminder to the community of a period in our history and the special people and organisations we have in our community”.

They are grateful to the church leadership team for allowing the images to go up on the hall wall, Steve says, and were determined to have them in place before Reverend Brendan Gibbs (one of the heroes) has his farewell service on May 7.

The images are also featured on the cover of the Lions Club of Katikati 2022/23 phone directory.