November 1st, 2011
Polytechnic students unveil Christmas exhibition at
Goddard’s Shopping Centre
Trees adorned with white Christmas decorations, created and made by Bay of Plenty
Polytechnic Year 2 Diploma in Art students, were unveiled today Downtown Tauranga.
The design students were commissioned by the Goddard’s Shopping Centre to create the
decorations. Marketing Manager Sally Cooke says the students were given a simple design
brief.
“We wanted to capture the spirit and essence of Christmas simply and effectively
using just two design parameters. The decorations all had to be white and they all had to
be made out of paper. The challenge was – in today’s highly consumable world -
can you revert back to the simplest of materials and still capture the spirit of
Christmas.”
Tutor Laurie Steer gave the students a ream of white paper each and left them to their
creativity. Student Corey Kuka says the project was a good challenge. “Everyone
did their research on how to use the paper, how we could use origami and other techniques
to create shapes and folding techniques. It was really hard because we only had paper and
white to work with, but I think the end result is good.”
Mary Stewart, Group Leader Culture from the Polytechnic’s School of Design and
Humanities says the students had to complete the project over and above their existing
curriculum work. She says the wonderful thing was that they became immersed in the spirit
of Christmas. “You could hear them, while they were creating the shapes; they
were sharing their Christmas stories; where they go for Christmas, family traditions and
the likes. The amazing thing was the project involved getting back to basics, spending
time together and creating things and isn’t that also what Christmas is about?”
Sally Cooke says for the Goddard’s Centre it was an opportunity to embrace and
support local emerging talent. “We wanted to offer the Polytechnic students an
opportunity to work on a project where they could express themselves and show off their
creative talents. It’s been a rewarding exercise and we’re delighted to be able
to support the students and showcase their work in the centre while providing us with a
unique expression of Christmas. We hope the public will enjoy coming to see the
trees.”
The centre is also looking at running a children’s Decorating Workshop before
Christmas. “One of the students has offered to run a workshop for children to
show them how easy and how much fun it is to create the decorations. We hope to stage this
in the week before Christmas,” says Sally.
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