Support for local artists what sets Whanganui apart

"For whatever instrument you’ve chosen . . . there are playing opportunities." Michael Franklin-brown

tell 10 to 20 people, that’s how it goes.”

Michael Franklin-brown will be behind the drum kit for Pluto at this weekend’s Whanganui Walls music festival.

He reckons support for local artists is something that sets Whanganui apart.

“Growing up, there was a really strong brass band at Boys’ College, and there is still strong brass in Whanganui.

“You realise that these things don’t happen by accident. There are people that do it for the community, and they organise things.

“For whatever instrument you’ve chosen – mine just happened to be drums – there are playing opportunities.”

Franklin-browne moved back to Whanganui from Auckland in 2013, and said he was “so overjoyed” with the way the Whanganui Musicians Club had been set up, and how it encouraged young artists to “get up and perform”.

“Older musicians seem to be encouraging of younger musicians here, and that’s not always the case in other places.”

Bill Milbank, former director of the Sarjeant Gallery and now curator of Milbank Gallery on Bell St, said Whanganui’s artistic community began to take shape in the early 1900s.

“There was quite a lot of wealth here, and the decision was made to build the Sarjeant Gallery, which as an absolutely unique building in New Zealand terms,” Milbank said.

“When I started at the Sarjeant in 1975, you could have counted the professional artists on one hand, people who had a profile beyond this community.

“The programmes that we ran, and the establishment of the polytechnic, drove a very strong and individualistic growth of people coming.”

Glen Hayward moved to Whanganui from Hokianga six years ago, and he said one of the great things about the artists here was their willingness to be part of a community.

“There’s a massive collection of ideas, which I guess is what I was looking for when I moved here,” Hayward said.

Another fairly recent arrival to the city is Brydee Rood, who, like Franklin-browne, made the move from Auckland to Whanganui in the past few years.

She is working on her first permanent public art installation, entitled A Future Canopy, to be unveiled in Whanganui this year.

“I had a family history and connection here that I wanted to explore, and I came down in 2016 to do work with the Sarjeant on the Whanganui River,” Rood said.

“I was looking for a place to settle and find my first home, so that was one of the factors as well.

“I looked at a number of other smaller towns that had a similar price bracket, but they didn’t have the river, those old [family] roots, and the creative community.

“Whanganui seemed to be more vibrant. This place does feel like my home now, and i do feel like I’m settling in.”