Celtic Barn's manager looks forward to role

Claire Nicholls is the new manager of the Celtic Barn in Waipu.

Waipu's Celtic Barn has a new manager, with Claire Nicholls, who previously managed Whangarei's Quarry Arts Centre, appointed to the role.

Waipu Caledonian Trust chairman Don Fraser said the trust was pleased with the appointment of Ms Nicholls, who has a background of management and events planning in the arts sector.

Before this new role Ms Nicholls managed the Quarry Arts Centre in Whangarei for almost six years where she gained valuable skills which she believes will transfer to this new position well, including organising and hosting major events, sourcing funding, marketing and promotion, overseeing capital development projects and renovations, public and media relations and stakeholder management.

"I'm really looking forward to this new role. We are so incredibly fortunate to have this multi-purpose facility in our community and it is testament to the spirit of Waipu where the community gets behind local projects in a big way," she said.

The barn, costing about $1.5 million, already has nine weddings booked for 2016 as well as several other large scale events and is used by three different sporting groups every week. It provided a great dry venue for events at this year's Waipu Caledonian Games.

"We are currently working on getting a website up and running early in 2016. There is a Facebook page which we encourage people to join to find out about upcoming events," Ms Nicholls said.