Rosie Dawson-Hewes Photo: Florence Charvin
Culture lover and curator Rosie Dawson-Hewes is passionate about accessibility in the arts. It led her to collaborate with a new Bay of Plenty art patron Fiona Menzies to create A Seat at the Table at this month’s Tauranga Arts Festival (19-28 October).
Set in a prominent vacant retail space in the centre of Tauranga, it’s an art exhibition with plenty of difference. The pair have worked with a suitably diverse range of artists to stage a group exhibition that Dawson-Hewes describes as looking like the aftermath of a wild, extravagant dinner party.
Dawson-Hewes and Menzies were inspired by how dinner provides a space for memorable conversations, but not everyone gets an invite.
Designed to provide space for all comers, you can literally take a seat at a dinner table in the space to look at work more closely. Here it’s art, rather than food, leading to new dinner party conversations.
A Seat at the Table at Tauranga Arts Festival 2023 Photo: Rosie Dawson-Hewes
The artists involved include Tracy Keith, Denise Porter-Howland, Turumeke Harrington, Victoria McIntosh, Elliot Mason, Devyn Ormsby, Tessa Russell, Hollie Ryan, and Nephi Tupaea.
Rosie Dawson-Hewes is also a writer and marketing manager, arts and culture for Hasting District Council. She speaks with Mark Amery on Culture 101.
A Seat at the Table at Tauranga Arts Festival 2023 Photo: Rosie Dawson-Hewes
