Service to Bay arts acknowledged
It took Golden Bay resident Liza Eastman a week to decide if she would accept a New Year Honours award, as she could think of so many other more deserving recipients.
‘‘Like the fire and ambulance volunteers and the mental health volunteers but in the end, I came to the conclusion that it was really arts related, and the arts don’t [get] enough kudos.
‘‘I just hope accepting the award does some good to the arts in Golden Bay,’’ she said.
Eastman was made a member of the Queen’s Service Order in the 2018 New Year Honours for her service to the arts and community.
A member of the Golden Bay Arts Council for 17 years, she has held the co-chair position in 2008 and 2015, and has been chairwoman since 2016.
Eastman is also a member of the subcommittee that established and runs the Golden Bay Art Bank gallery, where she also volunteers.
She is a founding member of the Golden Bay Patchwork and Quilting Guild and has held many positions within the guild since 1995.
‘‘One thing I have tried to do is make sure artists do have good places to display their work,’’ Eastman said. ‘‘That they do get noticed, that they can make a living, and I just love encouraging people to do artistic things.
‘‘The lovely thing about being a quilter is that people who come often don’t think they are artists but you can draw out their artistic talents through it.’’
Eastman shares quilting techniques at her home and runs classes for those wanting to make art quilts.
She has made panels commemorating lives lost in both the American AIDS Quilt Project and the New Zealand AIDS Quilt.
Eastman has designed and led group quilt projects that hang in public spaces in Golden Bay.
She and her husband, Vic Eastman, have won four major prizes at the World of Wearable Art Awards, which have been exhibited nationally and internationally.
She helps to organise an annual quilt raffle, which raises thousands of dollars for local and national voluntary services, and has helped raise awareness of the need for cushions for heart patients and quilts for premature babies and the elderly in public hospitals.
Eastman produced wall quilts to raise funds for the Joan Whiting Rest Home, which now hang in the Golden Bay Community Health Centre.
All her community work was with different groups she worked with. ‘‘It’s really important they are acknowledged too; it wasn’t all just me.’’