A Christchurch art space has helped people who struggle with alcohol and drug addiction issues, with isolation, institutionalisation and homelessness for the past seven years. Now it will be able to touch more lives after receiving a big grant and an award.
Art-East is a multi-disciplinary art studio, with resources for painting and sculpture, mosaics and stone-carving. And many local artists come along regularly to share their skills.
Lis Rate-Smith set up the studio out of frustration. She was unhappy that the mainstream health system focussed heavily on drugs and medicine as a way of treating people with these kinds of debilitating issues.
Art-East has won the Arts Access Holdsworth Creative Space Award in this year's Te Putanga Toi Arts Access Awards.
That's on top of receiving a grant from the government's Creative Spaces Initiative, meaning the studio can extend its opening hours.
Lynn Freeman took Lis Rate-Smith back to the studio's beginnings in 2014:
