Interactive artworks on show in Hastings

Hastings City Art Gallery was buzzing with more than 200 people enjoying a new interactive exhibition on Saturday.

To celebrate the opening of Play: Art that makes you move a family-friendly event with a bubble machine, sausage sizzle, ice blocks and face painting was held at the gallery.

Gallery director Toni McKinnon said she was "thrilled with the turnout and the reaction to the three works".

"It was a really good vibe.

"This exhibition is ideal for youngsters and their parents.

"It's about introducing kids to art and getting them used to and enjoying art spaces like the gallery."

The exhibition, as an extra to this year's schedule, was partly funded through the gallery's budget by Hastings District Council with the rest of the $3000 cost coming from crowd-funding initiative Boosted.

The exhibition included Seung Yul Oh's Periphery work, on loan from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, made up of around 40 giant, yellow inflated capsules that visitors are able to move through.

Sara Hughes designed hundreds of wooden blocks inspired by the architecture of buildings in Heretaunga Street for the show in her work titled Heretaunga and Hawke's Bay local Campbell Tamahina Burns constructed a wall-sized instrument that visitors can play for his Internal Geometries.

Play: Art that makes you move comes on the back of last year's hugely successful child-focused Lego exhibition and #keeponkimiora, an exhibition of photos taken by Kimi Ora Community School students who had been tutored by a professional photographer.

Both had proved hugely popular with children and their families.

Boosted is an on-line arts crowd-funding portal, backed by the Arts Foundation.

On the site a gallery or artist can list a project, the amount they need and a close date.

The gallery is also trying out another on-line platform, Thunderclap, which is designed to share a message on a mega-scale.