La Fiesta festival and Space gallery launch in Whanganui

Whanganui Women's Network manager Carla Donson and Space Gallery owner Sarah Williams prepare for the opening and launch on Saturday. Photo/Bevan Conley

Artist Sarah Williams has been painting furiously for the past few weeks with no new artworks to show for her efforts.

Instead, she has been painting walls to prepare a bright, new environment for other Whanganui artists to exhibit their work.

The new-look Space Gallery at 66 Taupo Quay will open on Saturday and will also be the venue for the launch of the 2019 La Fiesta women's festival.

"A group of around 30 Whanganui artists came for a walk-through last weekend and the reactions were very positive," said Williams.

"It was really nice to have people here and get their responses because I have been spending so much time on my own here."

Williams made the move from her small gallery at 64 Taupo Quay at the end of last year and will now be hosting exhibitions in three gallery spaces.

The new premises was originally a hotel built in 1896 and has served as a clothing factory, a carpet store and for a time in the mid 20th century, it was Whanganui's Central Police Station.

Ceilings had been lowered and raised over many decades and Williams has painted the space in whites and greys.

"Ceiling areas were already painted black and I have kept some of those because they work well with the new look."

Pendant lighting has been raised to give the spaces better illumination and Williams was looking forward to removing newsprint from the big windows to see the full effects in natural light.

Space will now have two galleries for established artists to exhibit and a third pop-up gallery for emerging artist exhibitions.

The first three exhibitions at Space will open this Saturday in conjunction with the La Fiesta 2019 launch.

There will be an exhibition by Whanganui photographic artist Tia Ranginui in one gallery, embroidery artist Katie Shand will be showing her work in the pop-up gallery and the third gallery is reserved for the La Fiesta exhibition "X".

La Fiesta, a festival celebrating women, was founded by Carla Donson in Whanganui 10 years ago and the exhibition celebrates the milestone.

"It is named for the Roman numeral 10 and there are 10 artists - five men and five women."

The participating artists are Margaret Silverwood, Samantha Matthews, Laura Papple, Katie Brown, Katherine Claypole, Graham Hall, Paul Rayner, Perry Davies, Simon Ormerod and Mark Rayner.

La Fiesta events will be happening all over Whanganui during the next month and Donson encourages everyone to consult the festival guide and make sure to book with event organisers in plenty of time.

"Some events are already close to being booked out and in previous years we have had events where organisers were expecting small numbers and crowds turned up."

The festival guide is available online at lafiestanz.com or pick one up from many locations around town.