Hastings lures people back to CBD with free arts and culture community day

Nineteen-year-old musician Isobelle Walker will be performing at Toitoi as part of the event. Photo / Supplied

Three council owned arts and culture facilities are holding a free community event to welcome residents back to Hastings post Covid-19.

Hastings Library, Hastings City Art Gallery and Toitoi – Hawke's Bay Arts & Events Centre are holding Titiro Mai – a free community day on July 11.

Toitoi manager Megan Peacock-Coyle said the day was created to reconnect locals with each other and the CBD through arts and culture.

"Lockdown saw us all isolated, from each other and our incredible local facilities. So, we created Titiro Mai to celebrate the way arts and culture can bring us together to celebrate, learn and discover new things, right here in our own city.

Across the three facilities there will be various activities from 11am to 2pm.

At Toitoi there will be entertainment ranging from face painting and dance to local musicians.

Nineteen-year-old singer-songwriter Isobelle Walker, who is back in the region on holiday from her study at Wellington School of Music, will be performing.

"Like most artists, I haven't been able to perform in some months, so the fact that I have the opportunity to play for the first time again in my home town just feels right," she said.

"I'm elated to be able to sing for the beautiful Hastings again. I have very fond memories of visiting the Opera House as a kid, and now feel blessed to perform at Toitoi where that same heart of creativity hums a tune."

Hastings Library will hold Storytime at 1pm, Lego continuous build, a Matariki-focused maker-space and a self-directed activity focused on Ngā Pou.

Hastings City Art Gallery curator Clayton Gibson said they will have an activity booklet for children and two floor talks.

At 11am artist Birgit Moffatt will talk about her current exhibition, Ko Papatūānuku e takoto ake nei, then at noon Gibson will give a tour of the current exhibitions which include Local Lockdown and the new exhibition Milk Run by Derek Henderson, which features photography of the urban landscape of Hastings in the 1970s.

He said there will also be an interactive wall where visitors can draw their favourite lockdown memory for a wall for all to see.