Whangarei's Te Kowhai Print Trust is celebrating its 30th birthday and to mark the occasion the Board of Trustees has selected a survey of 15 prints from its print archive to hang in the Yvonne Rust Gallery.
The trust had its origins in an Auckland coffee bar in 1982 when Ron de Rooy, a printing manager/designer, and teacher and printmaker Pippa Sanders discussed the need for a facility that incorporated traditional and modern printmaking techniques.
Their vision was to provide training and facilities in Whangarei to foster fine art printmaking. Two years after that meeting, the first headquarters for the printmaking collective was founded in the former Old Boys Rugby Club building at Whangarei's Town Basin.
The old building was dismantled in 1986 and moved to the Quarry Arts Centre, where TKPT officially opened in 1987.
The From the Archive works are not exhibited for sale but to show the depth and breadth of the techniques and skills of artists who have tutored and worked at the trust's facility.