The annual ‘Edge of the World’ art exhibition opens in Waikawa Hall, Curio Bay, today, featuring artists from across the country.
Southern District Arts Trust president Janice Broad said interest in the art show had built up in the last 20 years and, this year, they had over 300 entries to choose from.
She said art was good for the sometimes isolated rural community’s "wellbeing".
"Over the years a lot of people, when we started off particularly, a lot of people had never been to an art gallery and now they enjoy it and look forward to it," she said.
As a precursor to the exhibition, the arts and craft group holds a limestone carving workshop every year. This year’s version was led by Southland sculptor Stuart King last weekend.
About 15 of the limestone works will be exhibited in this year’s show. Broad said every year the carvings just got better and better.
A feature of the exhibition will be works by corrugated-iron artists Jeff Thompson and Regan Gentry, who created Dunedin’s public "molar" sculptures.
Each year special guest artists are invited to the show, and this year they are West Coast weaver and fibre artist Anne Daniels and Morrinsville’s Bernadette Ballantyne, who makes detailed photo-realistic works with oil pastels.
There will be a dinner at the Niagara Café tonight from 7pm where the two guest artists will each give a short presentation about their work.
Broad encourages attendees to return to the artworks after hearing the artists speak, as they may see them from a different perspective.
The event will run in Waikawa Hall from February 22 to March 2, 9.30am-5pm.
