Trucks take art to hundreds of schools

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/The Press

PRIVATE VIEWING: Alistair Knewstubb and Cyrilla Eade, both 16, study a Toss Woollaston painting on the art-packed Real Art Roadshow truck trailer.

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A Wanaka philanthropist has gathered up her extensive collection of New Zealand art and is taking it on the road to every secondary school in the country.

Fiona Campbell has spent millions of dollars of her own money creating the Real Art Roadshow. She has kitted out two custom-made trucks worth $460,000 each with pieces of art created by a variety of well-known Kiwi artists including Toss Woollaston, Shane Cotton and Ralph Hotere.

Campbell, a graphic designer who has worked in various Wellington art galleries, was an early investor in Trade Me and became "extremely wealthy" overnight after selling her shares in the online auction site.

"Although I live comfortably, I don't get off on spending money on myself. There's only so many pairs of shoes a woman needs and then it gets boring," Campbell said.

After seeing a shortage of real art available to New Zealand teenagers because their schools were isolated either physically or culturally from art galleries, Campbell decided to take art to the schools free.

She hired two art curators and bought more than 100 pieces of art, ranging from paintings, sculpture and photographs specifically for the project.

"It's just a lot easier buying the art, then I'm the only one who'll shed tears if anything goes wrong with it."

Campbell would not say how much money she spent on art, but said it was "lots".

She had gained hugely from the project after seeing students' enthusiasm.

The roadshow would visit all the country's 694 secondary schools in the next four years and has already visited about 245. The trucks would be spending the next seven weeks in Christchurch before touring the rest of the South Island throughout the year.

The truck drivers live in a separate compartment on board to keep an eye on the art.

More than 350 Linwood College students visited the roadshow this week, including year 13 student Alistair Knewstubb, 16, who said he had never been to a gallery where there were so many different types of art.

He said it was interesting to see the techniques used by the artists.

Linwood College art department head Ross Marwick said the roadshow had huge benefits for the students because they were often forced to rely on a photograph or reproduction.

- © Fairfax NZ News