Artists have plans for Southland

ROBYN EDIE/149430

COLLECTIVE APPROACH: Myross Bush artist Beverly Claridge is one of the artists setting up an artists' collective to oversee the region's professional arts scene.

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A Southern artists' collective is to be formed to help turn Southland into a destination for artists and art lovers.

The collective is the brainchild of Myross Bush artist Beverly Claridge.

Southland had no collective organisation overseeing the region's professional arts scene but one was needed, Claridge said.

Artists often worked in isolation and there was little scope for interaction with other like-minded people, she said.

"(The biggest issue) is we seem to be scattered about.

"A lot of it has to do with us reaching out to each other."

A meeting of professional artists held last week and run by Venture Southland showed there was support for the idea and the group would proceed with setting it up, she said.

It was hoped the as-yet-unnamed organisation could help Southland become an arts destination similar to Nelson or the Waikato, Claridge said.

"I want to see Southland become a place in which a professional artist could flourish.

"I have the goal to help make Southland ... an arts destination." Southland had plenty of community resources available but there was no co-ordinated organisation that helped professional artists with the finer details of their work, she said.

"Most of them (artists who attended the meeting) were really quite positive towards the idea that there were other artists in Southland interested in raising our profile and improving the level of visual arts down here," Claridge said.

Venture Southland creative projects manager Angela Newell said Southland had many artists whose work was recognised nationally and internationally but who wanted Southland's art scene celebrated and marketed so it became a destination for artists and art lovers.

A second meeting would be held on November 19 to discuss the idea further.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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