Spring clean returns to brighten city
Spring Clean Whakatū is returning next month with a clean slate of projects to brighten up the city.
Suter Art Gallery staff and volunteers, with help from Speedy Signs, got the ball rolling last week by cleaning the 27 paintings on the city’s Artwalk.
The joint project between Make/Shift Spaces and the Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū was launched in 2021 and features large-scale copies of works from the gallery’s permanent collection dotted throughout the central city.
Suter Gallery director Toni McKinnon, who took over the role last November, said some of the artworks had faded in the sunnier spots along the Artwalk route and would be replaced, but others just needed a good clean.
She said the gallery received good feedback about the paintings, including from schoolchildren visiting the Suter who recognised some of the gallery works from seeing them around the city.
Spring Clean Whakatū grew out of the What If Whakatū community hub in 2023 to generate ideas to revitalise Nelson’s central business district.
In its first year last spring, it involved businesses, property owners and volunteers taking on planting, gardening and cleaning projects around the city.
This year Spring Clean Whakatū will run from October 11 to 19. The chairperson of the What If Whakatū Nelson Community Taskforce Brian Riley said the project was about tapping into the sense of ownership people had for their city.
“It’s about challenging property owners and inner-city users to take some inspiration out of the springtime season and do something that has a positive effect on the overall presentation and usability of our city.
“The more vibrant an environment, the more likely people are to use it.”
As well as self-generated projects, Make/Shift Spaces was organising a team of “angel gardeners” to replant garden beds, and there will be more decoration of business entrances as part of the ongoing ArtDoors project.
The Nelson City Council, Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce and Uniquely Nelson were supporting the campaign.
A pop-up Multicultural Market at the top of Trafalgar St will be held to celebrate the campaign with food stalls, music and arts on October 18.
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
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