Kāpiti women artists join together to celebrate International Women's Day.

Art Everywhere curator Sandra Smillie, guest curator Kate Hartmann, Creative Kāpiti manager Jenna-Lea Philpott and Kāpiti Women's Centre manager Louise Waterworth. Photo / Rosalie Willis

More than 40 women from around Kāpiti are coming together to commemorate International Women's Day putting together pieces in an exhibition called Celebrating Resilient Women.

The exhibition at the Creative Kāpiti PopUp Gallery inside Kiwibank Paraparaumu, Opening and is part of an Art Everywhere project by Creative Kāpiti, developed in response to Covid-19.

"This special exhibition features a range of art created by women especially for the Choose to Challenge theme for International Women's Day," Creative Kāpiti manager Jenna-Lea Philpott said.

"We believe women's resilience is core to community resilience and worth celebrating and are delighted that this exhibition will also raise funds for the Kāpiti Women's Centre."

Curated by guest curator Kate Hartmann in partnership with Art Everywhere curator Sandra Smillie, both are also practising artists with work in the show.

The maximum space allocated to each artist is 50x50cm, meaning the works will be relatively small to fit lots in, with 30 per cent of sales donated to the Kāpiti Women's Centre.

"We're seeing such diversity of works that are coming through and amazing stories behind the works," guest curator Kate Hartmann said.

Pulling the exhibition together from scratch four weeks ago, Art Everywhere curator Sandra Smillie said, "We got a huge response despite the short time frame.

"Because of the short time frame we said to people they could submit works they already had, or they could create new works.

"We weren't expecting many people to create new works but around 40 per cent of people have, just for this exhibition."

"That's quite high, so I think people were quite keen to submit something new for this show," Kate said.

The exhibition will feature everything from glass to harakeke weaving, painting, drawing, photography to ceramic and stitch work.

"There's a great diversity," Kate said.

"The really cool thing is people coming back to me with their works and saying they're so glad to be able to support the Kāpiti Women's Centre as well."

Due to be opened by Ōtaki MP Terisa Ngobi and Kāpiti Women's Centre manager Louise Waterworth, this is the third exhibition at Kiwibank as part of Creative Kapiti's Art Everywhere project, developed in response to Covid-19.

Art Everywhere aims to activate unused spaces in the community in a visual show of creative strength and resilience.

The exhibition is made possible with funding from the Paraparaumu Raumati Community Board and Kāpiti Creative Industries Scheme for the Art Everywhere project.

"I believe art should be everywhere, it shouldn't be in exclusive spaces," Jenna-Lea said.

"The irony is that when it is everywhere, it feeds the hunger to go and visit galleries and seek our art experiences.

"We're very excited to provide this opportunity to experience art in everyday life and unexpected settings."

All pieces are for sale, with the exhibition opening on March 8, at Kiwibank Paraparaumu, running until April 9.