What’s On In and Around The Block!
The White Room on Wheels and Drawing Panel
Where: Various Locations
When: 12pm Noon until 4pm
The White Room on Wheels will offer a variety of activities from printing to frottage all free to participate in. A free-standing clear panel that allows people to trace what they can see, or be creative and draw what they like.
Little Painters
Where: THE GREEN @ 27 Worcester Boulevard
When: 12 Noon – 2.00pm
The goal of Little Painters is for tamariki to have a go at life drawing for free! Five easels and stools will be set up around a central stool where the subject will sit. The model will be a volunteer from the audience, and can dress up with a range of accessories!
The artworks will be completed with charcoal, a dry medium, and easy to clean with wet wipes on hand. The paper size will be A3 and there will be plastic sleeves to protect the finished drawings to be taken home!
Yarnarchy
Yarnarchy presented by Gap Filler
Where: THE GREEN @ 27 Worcester Boulevard
When: 12 Noon – 2.30pm
Yarn Bombing is part street art, part craft, part graffiti, and a whole lot of colour and positive vibes!! Come and join the Yarnarchists at the Block Party and learn how to create your very own yarn bomb. We’ll provide materials, teach you how to crochet or knit and offer some tips on how to yarn bomb. Everyone is welcome, from experienced creators through to newbies.
COBALT & brass
Where: The Green at Worcester Boulevard
When: 2.45pm – 3.15pm and 4.00pm – 4.30pm
Cobalt; crumbles, morphs, folds, repeats in patterns and movement form. The bell of a saxophone calls and orbits. Witness movement artists Sarah Elsworth & Olivia McGregor alongside musician Jimmy Rainey, join forces for a live street performance experiment.
Art Marking Picnic & Workshop from Priscilla Rose-Howe & SCAPE Public Art
Where: THE GREEN @ 27 Worcester Boulevard
When: 3.00pm – 4.30pm
Please join Priscilla Rose Howe, SCAPE Public Art’s Season 2023 Community Engaged artist, for an interactive an art-making picnic and workshop inspired by using various drawing techniques and developing ideas around self-exploration and self-presentation in fantasy portraiture.
Priscilla is an Ōtautahi artist whose figurative works explore ideas around phenomenology, queerness and the supernatural. They use mostly dry mediums, including coloured pencil, oil pastel and graphite to render their striking scenes, drawing on cinematic influences and elements of world building and fantasy. Some scenes also take inspiration from dreams of an imagined future that exists beyond the current social climate. Priscilla’s public artwork for SCAPE Season 2023 will act as a call for more permanent queer spaces in Ōtautahi.
Click here to register for the event.
KEI
What’s on at The Arts Centre Market Square and D Lawn
The Year of the Arts Market
Where: The Arts Centre Market Square
When: 12 Noon – 6pm
A range of artists, creatives, and performers including Ōtautahi Creative Spaces, The White Room, Skillwise Pottery Group, Housing First Artists, Nicki Reece, Fleur de Their, Madeleine Wesselingh, Flowers with Rosie, Zine Fest Christchurch, Lily Wenmoth, Fibre Gallery, Stephanie Symns, Louise Landess, Immer Farbe Gallery, Sonia Therese, Jeanette Ward, the Court Theatre, and more.
Kā Rika Auaha
Where: The Arts Centre Canopy
When: 12 noon – 6pm
Where: The D-LAWN at the Arts Centre Market Square
When: 12 Noon
Te Roopu Tūhono kapa haka group from Skillwise performance.
Where: The D-LAWN at the Arts Centre Market Square
When: 12:30 – 1.25pm
Canterbury Vanuatu Association, South Island Solomon Islands Association, and Canterbury Papua New Guinea.
A range of cultural dancing and music from multiple provinces across the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu.
Where: The D-LAWN at the Arts Centre Market Square
When:1.30pm – 1.55pm
Showstoppers is Showbiz Christchurch’s no audition, musical theatre choir of around 40 singers. Formed two years ago, they have presented concerts for our sponsors Ryman Healthcare Villages over a limited season each year.
At the Block Party Showstoppers will present a selection of choral versions of musical theatre songs representing a range of musicals from different eras.
Where: The D-LAWN at the Arts Centre Market Square
When: 2.00pm – 2.25pm
Catalyst is a literary arts journal published in Kā Pākihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha – the ‘Bewildering Plains’ of Waitaha/Canterbury, in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Publishing poetry, fiction, experimental writing as well as artwork, design and spoken word recordings on CD from around New Zealand and the world. For the Block Party, Catalyst will present Doc Drumheller, Ciaran Fox, Melanie McKerchar, Andy Coyle, and Ray Shipley reading original work.
Where: The D-LAWN at the Arts Centre Market Square
When: 2.30pm – 2.55pm
Upcoming artist Lucy Gray is a performer, singer and songwriter from Ōtautahi, Christchurch, New Zealand. She is currently studying at Hagley School of Music. Her writing is inspired by alternative pop, pop, alternative rock & indie styles, with Lucy finding a personal harmony in the less orthodox melodic & conceptual tropes usually associated with these genres. She released in 2023 three singles ‘pretty’, ‘coffee breath’ and ‘not fair’. With public support for her music growing, ‘pretty’ was placed on the NZ Hot New Singles Chart at #19.
Where: The D-LAWN at the Arts Centre Market Square
When: 3.00pm – 3.25pm
Lee Martin is a Christchurch-based singer/songwriter who has been impacting the music scene with her thought-provoking lyrics and storytelling writing style. In 2022, Lee released her sophomore album “Gypsy Soul” which went straight to the Top 20 New Zealand Official music charts and has received international attention from radio and press alike. Martin is an old soul with a versatile writing style that allows her to cross genres as she glides easily between Soul, folk, rock, blues, and country, all the while maintaining her unique sound.
Mellow Studios
Where: The D-LAWN at the Arts Centre Market Square
When: 3.30pm – 3.55pm
Marley Sola and wife, Honor, began Mellow Studios in July 2021 sitting in Coffee Culture at Bayfair in Tauranga. Marley and Honor’s vision for the studio is to build a safe space for tamariki, rangatahi and adults alike, to express, heal and learn about their voices and artistry. For the Block Party, Mellow Studios are presenting performances by Flynn Adamson and Thursday Collective.
K.E.I
Where: The D-LAWN at the Arts Centre Market Square
When: 4.30pm – 5.20pm
Christchurch-based artist K.E.I (pronounced key) has been making a name for herself in the local live scene, selling out her first ever headlining show at the Darkroom in November of 2022. K.E.I brings a fierce and energising performance to any stage, channelling her greatest inspirations such as Silk Sonic, Jordan Rakei, Gin Wigmore and J. Cole. In 2021, K.E.I worked with the likes of KIMBRA after placing in the Top 12 of TVNZ’s Popstars. Some of her most significant performances to date include headlining the Go Live! Festival, opening for PAGE on the Christchurch leg of her tour, and performing with the Levites at Galatos. As a prolific songwriter and producer, K.E.I likes to visualise her songs from the stage backwards; and uses Ableton live to create both the vocal and instrumental parts of her music.
The E.C.H.O
Where: The D-LAWN at the Arts Centre Market Square
When: 5.30pm – 5.55pm
The E.C.H.O is a guitar-featured rock band with an electrifying combination of precision drum beats and deadly bass lines that will send shivers down your spine!
Pia’s Exhibition Pūrākau is on at Toi Auaha
What’s On Around the Block
Pūrākau – An Exhibition at Toi Auaha Community Arts Hub
Where: Toi Auaha Community Arts Hub, 5 Worcester Boulevard
When: 12 Noon – 6pm
An exhibition curated by eight-year-old Pia Hill featuring work created by a range of artists and tamariki taking place in the Toi Auaha lounge for one day only! Pia says that “without art, there wouldn’t be a way to tell stories. Because in the olden days they told stories with art. And books are art. Plants are art too. Anything can be art. Humans can be art, clothes can be art too. It’s really cool.”
Open Studios at Toi Auaha
Where: Toi Auaha
When: 12 Noon – 3pm
Wander through a selection of artist studios at the recently established community arts hub.
Tūhono Taonga, Tūhono Tāngata
Nationally-recognised artist and pounamu carver Jon Jeet (Ngāti Maniapoto, Fijian Indian), along with a handful of talented facilitators, will be onsite teaching anyone interested how to carve a simple pounamu form. Based in the Tūhono Taonga Tūhono Tāngata Trust mobile carving unit for The Block Party, you will be able to watch Jon carve and then give it a go yourself! All materials and guidance are supplied by Jon and the Trust.
When: Noon until 2pm
Share Kai is about creating spaces of belonging where people can connect around the table, share about ourselves and learn about others. Share Kai is a collaboration between InCommon, Mahia te Aroha and the Share Kai Cooks Collective, showcasing the richness of cultures in Aotearoa New Zealand and fostering connections between individuals of different backgrounds. Share Kai with members of the Eritrean community will be serving coffee and kai to visitors of Toi Auaha for free.
66 Gloucester Street
When: 3.00pm – 4.00pm
Chloe Cull (Pouarataki – Curator Māori at Christchurch Art Gallery) and Māia Abraham (Kaiwhakahaere Ngā Ratonga Maori, Manager Māori & Multicultural Services, Christchurch City Libraries) in conversation about Robyn Kahukiwa’s extensive and varied body of work.
When: 1pm – 4.30pm
1.00 – 2.00pm Workshop 1, Drawing from the (ancient) antique: A one hour drawing class with Jon Jeet where attendees will have the opportunity to draw inspiration from the Logie Collection of classical antiquities. This class will be hosted in the Museum and is free, but registration is compulsory. Register here.
3.30pm – 4.30pm, Workshop 2, Life drawing in the Teece Museum: A one hour drawing class with Jon Jeet in the Teece Museum after hours. The ancient Greeks were fascinated with the human form and as a result the Teece Museum exhibition features a wide range of ancient Greek artefacts sporting nudes. The museum venue will provide a unique atmosphere and engage the senses! This class will be hosted in the Teece Museum and is free, but registration is compulsory. Register here
When: 10am – 4pm
Located in the heart of the central city, Papa Hou is a vibrant hub featuring a Black Box Theatre, Pūmanawa Preschool, Elevate Fitness gym, Muscle People physio, youth and community spaces, dance and movement studios, and more. Join us for a day of family-friendly fun and your chance to explore the many treasures of Papa Hou. You will get a taste of what each unique space has to offer PLUS there will be free face painting, a sausage sizzle, and lots more. The new cafe, Atawhai, will also be open and ready to serve those looking for their coffee-fix. This is a day you don’t want to miss, check out the Facebook event here!
When: 11am
Join curators Melanie Oliver and Jane Wallace as they introduce you to the new exhibition ‘Spring Time is Heart-break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa’.
Working in textiles, sculpture, painting, photography, moving image and sound, the twenty-four artists in Spring Time is Heart-break explore the transitions between places, and across time. An Ursula Bethell poem lends the exhibition its title, echoing the seasonal temporality and tenderness in the works. Spring Time is Heart-break compels you to think, and feel.
On top of the art works themselves, we have a range of activations for you to enjoy as well – like guided tours, artist conversations, treasure hunts and workshop activities – so get amongst it and follow us on social media!
Where: Canterbury Museum at CoCA, 66 Gloucester Street
When: 25 November 2023 to 7 January 2024
The family Christmas time favourite, The Great Museum Santa Search,is back, but in a new venue and with a bit of a twist.
Sharpen your observation skills at the pop-up Museum, 66 Gloucester Street, and search out the secrets of the Museum Santas.
Pick up an entry form at the front desk. It will have clues to help you answer the questions. When you think you’ve come up with all the correct answers, post your entry form in the box. The first correct entry drawn wins a prize.
The Great Museum Santa Search has been an annual tradition at the Museum for 20 years.
The competition opens at Canterbury Museum at CoCA on 25 November – the same day as The Block Party – and runs to 7 January 2024. It is open to children 15 years and under.
Come into the city and have fun in this free festive activity.
Entry to the Museum is free, donations are appreciated.
Terms & Conditions Apply: Go to www.canterburymuseum.com