New art initiative in town
Taste of Art, or TART, is a new group of artists that seek to innovate the cultural field in Queenstown. Their aim is to create new events that don’t currently exist in the local art scene and to connect with the community through their artistic activities in public and inclusive spaces.
Since forming, the group have hit the ground running and have already hosted one workshop, with more planned as well as a street performance. Community is at the heart of what they do – group members come from all over the world and their upcoming performance will revolve around the deep and often overlooked of experience and loneliness among immigrants.
Lucas Rodriguez is one of the founding group members and shares that the group emerged as a response to the need for new cultural spaces that are currently lacking in Queenstown. Their idea is not necessarily to make a big group, but a strong group.
“It started two years ago as a group of immigrants from everywhere – we ran it in houses, living rooms and gardens, and we made a small exhibition, which was mostly paintings and music paired together,” says Lucas. “Then it started to grow and there was 70 – 80 people inside and we started thinking ‘this is getting too big, now we can make something more serious, how do we take the next steps?’ So we created this group and called it TART – Taste of Art.”
As it started to grow the group started to integrate all different forms of art and now includes dancers, musicians, painters, poets, writers, and more. Moving forward they hope to continue to put on workshops, put on exhibitions and create street performances.
“My goal with the workshops is to show everyone that they can paint. I make it as easy as possible and a lot of fun. I also want to create some workshops with different types of painting exercises – so you wouldn’t come and just paint a mountain, but I would ask people what they have in their mind and what they want to paint, and we can see how we can create it. Also, if we make an ugly scene, we can have fun anyway. I want to try and make it a fresh, open space – not like academic art.”
They’re working on an upcoming street performance called Loneliness, which will be the first major event for the group. It will include a range of different performers, encompassing sound and visual artistic expressions. It’s aim is to connect artists, art enthusiasts, and even those who have had limited exposure to their art forms, allowing everyone to actively participate in the performance of unique artistic identity.
“I love Queenstown and I really want to give the community something else and not just keep this for my friends and myself. It’s super important.”
Lucas also wanted to thank all the sponsors that have helped to bring TART to life, “Te Hautoka and Creative Communities. Also, mentors like Silvia Dancose from QLDC and Eric Lim from Multicultural Festival and Tāhuna Kollektif, who help us and accompany us in every step we take.”
Keep your eyes peeled for TARTs first exhibition. The group is continuing to grow and always welcoming new members. You can find them by searching Taste of Art on Facebook, and get in touch if you’d like to get involved.
