Port school transforms into art gallery
A Bill Hammond original will help Lyttelton Primary School transform into an art gallery this weekend.
It will be the first Peninsula Art Auction at the new school, which opened last year after the merger of Lyttelton Main and Lyttelton West schools.
The biennial exhibition and auction was previously held as a fundraiser by the two schools and St Joseph’s School, which closed in 2009.
Senior students will decamp for a field trip on Friday while volunteers remodel their classrooms for the auction, which includes work from about 80 artists with connections to Banks Peninsula.
Among them is Hammond’s Singer Songwriter 1, which features anthropomorphic, human-like birds.
Local printmaker Jason Greig provided two prints for the auction, including one of a hammerhead shark.
He said the ‘‘lure of the sea and psychic allure of the water’’ inspired him to create art in the portside town. Helping the school was a ‘‘worthy cause’’.
Sumner artist Ben Reid, known for works focused on the country’s natural and ecological history, contributed a work examining the introduction of rabbits to New Zealand.
The Banks Peninsula community tended to appreciate progressive forms of art, he said, and he was proud to be part of such a ‘‘healthy and diverse art community’’.
Lyttelton Primary School principal Brendan Wright said the auction provided an opportunity to bring the community into the school to share ‘‘some fantastic artworks’’ and look around the new buildings.
The school already collaborates with local theatre company The Loons to double at night as the Lyttelton Arts Factory theatre.
Wright said the school hoped to use funds raised to fund initiatives in arts, science, technology and literacy.
At its previous auction, in 2015, the school raised $40,000. This year’s aim was to raise up to $60,000.