Whau the People have got up to a lot since we first came together as a small group of local creatives, with big ideas. Below are some of the community art projects we have led over the years.
First taking collective form in 2013, Whau the People founding members are: Leilani Tamu, Bronwyn Bent, Jody Yawa McMillan, Sam Morrison and Janet Lilo.
In 2013, Avondale Community Action supported a series of community art exhibitions and events at their pop up Creative Spaces on the main street in Avondale. Creative Spaces aimed to encourage, support and install a number of creative projects in and around the Avondale town centre.
At the end of this pop-up project, Whau the People arts collective was formed through a ‘call for action’ on facebook and from a fortuitous first meeting, they got brainstorming on future ideas. With a big dose of passion, a bit of naivety and lots of aroha the inaugural Whau Arts Festival 2014 was born. Recognising the breadth of creative diversity that exists in their local suburb and with support from the Whau Local Board, the group saw an opportunity to bring local artists and community together to showcase their work and activate the myriad of forgotten spaces that litter their suburb.
Whau Arts Festival editions
In 2014, the inaugural Whau Arts Festival exploded onto Auckland’s creative scene with involvement from over 120 artists, 30 businesses, and thousands of audience members over four days of intense artistic activity in Avondale. That’s right, Avondale – Auckland’s new creative mecca for anyone keen to get out of the gallery ‘box’ and participate in quality art that is experimental, inclusive and community responsive: in other words WHAU REAL!
Thanks to Auckland Council for your continued support towards these annual events, we are now approaching our 8th edition of the Whau Arts Festival which we couldn’t have done alone.
