Creative mums create space to take art to the community
A group created to help parents express themselves through art wants the community to help raise funds for their next event.
Parents Arts Collective Timaru ran a printmaking event on Saturday in the Royal Arcade and produced T-shirts using the Strathallan manhole cover design.
‘‘We created this group because we found that as mothers we needed to express ourselves,’’ Pact co-founder Helen Oishi said.
‘‘Art in life is sometimes lost in motherhood and the point of the group was to break the barriers to creativity for parents and create a space for them to do art.
‘‘Its good for your mental health, your children and your family. People need creativity in life. We want a community that wants to create.’’
Members of Pact – Oishi, Gillian Martin and Georgia McDonald-Bates – wanted a community for parents of young children who wish to find space to create. The group was later opened to other people who needed an opportunity to create.
Oishi said the event on Saturday, which was attended by around 100 people, including parents, children and grandparents, was to raise awareness and money for their cause.
‘‘It was a guerrilla printmaking event to show how it works. It’s not easy to get access to printmaking machines, and we did it to showcase a different way of art and something that was less mainstream.
‘‘A lot of people were turning up to help raise awareness of what we do. Although it was raining, they came into town for it,’’ Oishi said.
‘‘A year ago we had an exhibition, and we are ideally trying to do regular events like this. And our main goal is to have a permanent space for people to make art at a time in the day that suits them.’’
Oishi said the T-shirts would make good Christmas presents, and the money raised would go towards planning and organising their next event.
The T-shirts, which are available in children and adults sizes, would be advertised for sale via social media .
‘‘They are all hand-printed, unique, quite special and not expensive,’’ she said.
‘‘Within our organisation we have to support each other to support the charity, so we can support the community that we want to foster.’’