Chairs with new legs

Students Patrick O'Connor, Roxanne Milson, Natalie Rood and Bernita Stone tackling the challenge from different backgrounds. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

What happens when you task four students with differing career paths to create one project? One, very chaotic, colourful, and creative art block at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.

Fashion students stitch and sew, art students twist and turn their paintbrushes, while graphic design students create interesting patterns to produce one project they've each put their creative spin on.

Fashion student Bernita Stone and three fellow Bachelor of Creative Industries students are busy turning old stools and chairs into works of art for their exhibition on October 22-24.

They'll be displaying their creations in The Collective: Unique Up-Cycled Chairs exhibition, as part of Mainstreet Tauranga and BOP Polytechnic's Students in the City exhibition series at the pop-up gallery Project Room at 63 Spring St.

Bernita, 19, has up-cycled a second-hand high chair and dining chair.

'I've got newspaper and used nail polish remover, which has left the newspaper print on the chair, then it's been clear-coated. I've re-covered the seat in a neutral-toned fabric because I wanted the newspaper print to stand out.

'I'm doing up a highchair too and made a little tray for it because it didn't have one. One of the other students, a painter, is using it as her artist palette for a few days so I'll varnish that.”

She's sewed a waterproof fabric on the seat, which she's going to paint bright yellow.

Opened in September, the exhibition series showcases the work of students undertaking the creative industries programmes at the polytechnic.

Industry partnerships are integral to the new Bachelor of Creative Industries degree and enable students to build relationships and gain experience in the real world.

Bernita says initially it was tricky to come up with an idea all creative students would agree on. Once they decided, each student was assigned their task.

'Two students are graphic designers so they helped with the logo and the fashion students helped with sewing.

'It's just so much to learn, it's almost like a little sneak peek into having a business.”

BCI programme co-ordinator Nicol Sanders-O'Shea says students enrolled in the BCI degree focus on technical, creative and business aspects of art and design.

'A big part of the BCI degree is to mentor business initiatives that will help to establish our students when they graduate.

'Through our Collaborative Projects, students take an idea for a service or product, develop it, test it, and launch it, the way they would in a real life market.”

Certificate in Art and Design and Toi Maori students will also be exhibiting work from their one-year programme showcasing ceramics, weaving, carving, photography and painting.

The free exhibition series will showcase new work in photography, graphic design, moving image, painting, sculpture and fashion design.The pop-up will finish with an exhibition of their work, opening to public on December 10.

The Collective: Unique Up-Cycled Chairs exhibition is at 63 Spring St on October 22-24 from 10am-4pm.

For further information, visit www.boppoly.ac.nz/bci

Snap to it

Launching the same time as The Collective exhibition is SnapDraw Studio, led by BOP Polytechnic group ‘FOMO'.

The project at The Project Room on October 22-24 provides a fun and interactive drawing experience, which aims to connect and bring communities together in a creative way.

Visit the SnapDraw exhibition and your instant Instax photo will be taken and given to you with an A4 paper and an envelope for writing your name and secret interest on.

Photographs are placed in the envelope for someone else to randomly select your interest and draw inspiration from for their drawing.

Finished drawings are clipped to your Instax photo and envelope and displayed on a wall.

Entry is a gold coin donation to the project. The final gallery will be displayed at The Project Room for viewing on October 27 from 10am-3pm.

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