Te Pu o Te Wheke trustees, from left, Annais Allen, Sasha Wilson, John Hayward, Sabine Weber-Beard (front) and Bebe Bourke with a giant octopus (wheke). Photo / Peter de Graaf
Te Pu o Te Wheke Community Art Gallery opened on Broadway, Kaikohe, and celebrated its new status as a charitable trust on Friday night.
The brainchild of Kaikohe woman Sasha Wilson, the gallery first opened three years ago in a former hardware store with the aim of giving local artists
an outlet and an affordable place to showcase their work.
The old premises are now leased out so the gallery has moved across the road into a former surplus store and plans to use the extra space for workshops in weaving, woodturning and other artforms, as well as a healing room for health practitioners.
Upcoming events include a talk about a project to recreate Te Rā, the only traditional Māori sail known to exist; light sculpture workshops for a Matariki trail; and a video exhibition by Kaikohe youth.
The gallery's name translates as "The Centre of the Octopus", a reference to Kaikohe's location at the centre of the many arms of Ngāpuhi.
