Cath Watson, director of 85 Glasgow St Art Centre, wearing a necklace by Lauren Lysaght (a slice of pizza, double cheese with a rolled crust) and in the company of artwork by Pamela Lilburn and others. Photo / Paul Brooks
Cath Watson, director of 85 Glasgow St Art Centre, wearing a necklace by Lauren Lysaght (a slice of pizza, double cheese with a rolled crust) and in the company of artwork by Pamela Lilburn and others. Photo / Paul Brooks
Opening this Friday in A Gallery at 85 Glasgow St Art Centre is a La Fiesta art exhibition appropriately titled Girls, Girls, Girls – Shout it OUT!
Cath Watson, gallery director and curator, says that every year A Gallery will have a Girls, Girls, Girls show as part of LaFiesta. Last year it was Not to be Overlooked. Next year there will be another tagline.
"As long as I have the gallery, we will participate each year," says Cath. "The female in art has a bit of a history of being under recognised, and is still undervalued, so we will have all female artists, wonderful artwork, to celebrate that during the festival."
The exhibition will be on show for the four weeks of La Fiesta.
After attending a summer school here in 2007, Cath and her husband Campbell Wylie moved to Whanganui from Wellington to study glass art fulltime, expecting to stay for a couple of years, or as long as it took to complete their studies. They stayed.
Cath calls Whanganui the 'Goldilocks' place. Not too big, not too small. Not too hot, not too cold. It's just right. In 2019 she was approached to buy the gallery previously owned by brothers Paul and Mark Rayner.
"I'm doubly blessed: I not only get to look at lovely works, the people who come in, more often than not, are very interesting people."
Celebrating La Fiesta with artwork by local women is a good fit for Cath and her gallery. Girls, Girls, Girls – Shout it OUT! will feature artists such as Alice McDonald, Jillian Karl, Frances Jill Studd, Julz Coffey, Cecelia Kumeroa and Catherine McDonald, among others.
