Hundreds of fabric strips written on by the public are now one work at Ormiston Town Centre
Dreamcatchers woven by shoppers at Ormiston Town Centre in March have gone on public display there.
“Each piece will become a vibrant marker of belonging, showing how creativity can bind us together,” Arts Out East said of the project.
The Dream Weavers installation opened on 5 August and runs until 16 December.
It gathers up the work of two weekend workshops held in the centre’s Cultural Hub on 28 and 29 March.
Visitors picked a strip of recycled fabric, wrote a dream, wish, hope or story on it, and wove or plaited it onto a circular frame.
The artist then brought the dreamcatchers together into one large layered work.
The workshops were led by Dizzie Pixie, an Auckland mixed media artist who works in reclaimed and up-cycled materials.
Arts Out East describes her practice as blending art and community, engaging people of all ages through playful, hands-on creativity.
No art experience was needed and the sessions were free.
The project is funded by Arts Out East, the community arts brokering programme run by the Pakuranga contemporary art space Te Tuhi and paid for by the Howick Local Board.
The Board budgeted $106,000 for the programme this financial year, of which $24,000 is ring-fenced for creative placemaking work with town centres.
That was approved on 25 June as part of the Board’s community work programme.
The Cultural Hub is a shop space next to New World that Arts Out East has used since a fortnight-long pop-up there in March last year.
It has since housed a community map of Ormiston by Bonnie Wong, basket weaving with Sarah Walker-Holt, and an exhibition by the Howick Photographic Society.
Arts Out East has also worked in Botany Town Centre, where Serena Stevenson’s The Connection Project showed between Mecca Maxima and H&M from 9 to 28 May.
