The Arts Village Holiday Arts Academy is back in Rotorua

The drop-in watercolour activity The Arts Village ran in July. Photo / Supplied

After a hiatus in April and July, The Arts Village is thrilled to release the programme for the October School Holidays.

The programme is for 8 to 12 year olds, and runs 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, over the upcoming school holidays between September 28 and October 9.

Each week costs $150 a child, which includes all art materials but does not include food.

Activities include painting cities, creating papier-mache treasure boxes, sewing fabric mosaics, making art with natural materials, and puppet-making.

The programme is taught by Rotorua-based artist and educator Maui Riley, who has been the children's arts educator at The Arts Village since 2019.

The schedule will see the young artists learn new skills, make new friends, try new materials, and create cool art to take home and share with their whānau.

Maui has been busy planning the schedule which includes traditional and modern art-making techniques, like screenprinting, sculpture, and pattern-making.

He has also been making some resources for the studio to kit it out, such as bag hooks, and drying lines.

Covid-19 has presented some huge challenges for the team at The Arts Village.

With increased pressures and reduced income, it has been a difficult few months for the village, dealing with the cancellation of a number of major events and activities, including the Arts in Community Open Day, Colour the Night 2020, and the July Holiday Arts Academy.

The October art activities have been designed around level 2 restrictions, so will be going ahead even if level 2 is extended.

The Arts Village director Mary-Beth Acres says their team has worked incredibly hard to come up with a programme that is exciting, teaches cool arts skills, uses interesting supplies, and has all the necessary cleaning precautions in place.

"This is the first time we have offered five-day programmes like this - it means that we can include some multi-day art activities and longer processes which is really exciting.

"Often it can be hard to fit art activities that need drying time into a single day so this really opens up what we can do."

This programme is supported with projects funding from Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust, to help the village team make life in Rotorua awesome through the arts, she says.

Enrolments are open now and can be made online at www.artsvillage.org.na/HAA

The Activities
- Week One: Monday, September 28 to Friday, October 2 ($150 per child for the week) Activities include: Painting Cities, Drawing Still Life, Sculpting, Papier Mache Treasure Boxes, and Sewing Fabric Mosaics.
- Week Two: Monday, October 5 to Friday, October 9 ($150 per child for the week) Activities include: Printmaking Patterns, Screen Printing Fabric, Painting on Wood, Making Art with Natural Materials, Puppet-Making, and Dramatic Storytelling.