Wellington City Council Open Day 2024

Thanks to a generous grant from Wellington City Council, we launched a brand-new Open Call and community event designed to celebrate and support emerging artists, while inviting the wider public into a day of creativity, connection, and exploration.

Through the Open Call, four talented artists were selected to exhibit in a group show: Hannah Arnold, Sarah Chowen, Michelanne Forster, and Natalie Holland.  Working across landscape painting, expressionist painting, photography and textile arts, these artists were selected for the quality and integrity of their work. Together, their practices offered a celebration of colour, texture, and technique, along with four distinct insights into how each artist sees and processes the world. [Read more about their exhibition, Four Windows, To and From, here.] 

To celebrate the end of the exhibition and engage our wider community, we hosted a vibrant Open Day featuring a morning of subsidised creative workshops, an artist talk, and live music. The response was overwhelmingly positive: 95% of workshop tickets were booked and nearly every workstation at every studio was in use, from the print room to the darkroom. The house was buzzing with creative energy.

In the ceramic studio, Christine Winbush led Pottery Cuddle Cups, which offered a crash-course in hand-building with the saucy twist of sculpted breasts and bums, so that cups made resembled soft, fleshy torsos. Over in the main house, Jake Fairweather led Whānau Suminagashi; an all-ages workshop that invited tamariki and their caregivers experiment with Japanese paper marbling in a joyful, hands-on swirl of ink and water. In Dynamic Drawing, tutor Denise Durkin guided participants through a fun and fast-paced session of sketching exercises; sharing simple yet powerful techniques to create accurate, yet visually generous, drawings from the most simple of subjects.

Upstairs in the print studio, local artist Kirsty White generously shared elements of her own practice, guiding attendees through both drypoint etching and woodblock techniques. Participants explored the process and created a series of prints of their own. Exhibiting artist Hannah Arnold led Cameraless Photography, where participants immersed themselves in the red lights silver solutions of our darkroom to create photograms using feathers, flowers, and found objects. For Raranga in the West Studio, artist Irihāpeti Te Aho and students stripped, wove and sculpted at tables surrounded by green installations of freshly cut harakeke. In this relaxed yet hands-on introduction to the Māori art of weaving, participants explored the rhythms and techniques of one of Aotearoa’s essential artforms.

Following the workshops, we hosted a free artist talk with the exhibiting artists, who shared personal insights and background on the works featured in our gallery. The talk was warmly received, and guests enjoyed the opportunity to continue the conversation over coffee and cake. We rounded out the day with a live performance from local band Daily Keno, whose dreamy, spacious tunes created the perfect atmosphere for our full house of visitors (plus a few dogs!) to relax and smile their way through a completely charming and captivating set.

Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive 100% of surveyed attendees said they enjoyed themselves and would be interested in attending future Open Days at Inverlochy Art School. Notably, one fifth of respondents said that the affordability of the workshops was a deciding factor in their attendance—highlighting the importance of accessible, community-focused programming.

This was a truly special event. We welcomed many first-time visitors through our doors, and the resulting atmosphere of creative connection is something we’re genuinely proud of. We’re already looking forward to bringing this initiative back in the future.