A group of keen artists from Māpua School travelled to Gordon Toi's gallery last week to begin an exciting art project for our school.

Last week a group of enthusiastic and talented artists were chosen from the senior and intermediate teams to begin the creating stage of our Creatives in Schools project with local artist Gordon Toi.

The students spent the day with Gordon painting the large wooden Pou Whenua which will hold pride of place in our front gardens of the school next term.  The students will work on the Pou again this week to create the surface detail patterns with the support of Gordon's vision and expertise.  

We are very fortunate to have the knowledge, talent and guidance of Gordon who is a master carver and tattooist living in our community.  

The students relished the opportunity to work with an artist for the day and were fully respectful of this unique opportunity provided by the Ministry of Education.

The beautiful symbols and drawings created before and during lockdown by many of the students at our school will now be drawn and cut out of wood to be attached to the Pou to signify our taonga.  The original artists will be able to paint and carve these wooden symbols. 

Keep an eye on our school Facebook page and future newsletters for more updates on this special creative project.