Inspirational visit to King Street Artworks

“There’s a lot of good people doing great things. The artists inspire each other and they’ve inspired me,” said Her Excellency Lady Susan Satyanand when she visited King Street Artworks in Masterton earlier this month.

Lady Susan’s visit was one of several visits made during a four-day tour of the Wairarapa with her husband, The Governor-General, Sir Anand Satyanand. Arriving at 9am on Thursday, she was greeted by staff and more than 45 artists.

For the next two hours, she talked to artists at work in the Masterton creative space and visited its shop-front gallery.

“There are a lot of good people doing great things at King Street Artworks,” she said.  “On a practical level, it offers training, materials and motivation but beyond that are all the things that each person brings and shares with the community.”

Feeling honoured
King Street Artworks Co-ordinator Ian Chapman said everyone felt very honoured that Lady Susan had chosen to visit the creative space.

“She talked to all the artists and showed a genuine interest in what they were doing,” he said.

One of the first artists whom Lady Susan talked to was Eric Kurtz, who comes to King Street Artworks twice a week. Eric has been writing his life story, loves to sing and enjoys painting.

“I’ve been coming here five or six years,” he said. “I like the company and the fact that I can sing.”

Productive and positive
Stephen Duncan has work on display in the gallery. He’s been attending the space for the past 18 months. “I come every day, if I can. It’s an industrious, productive and positive place with tutors who are there to help and offer suggestions.”

Noella Godinet describes herself as an “artist person and a cat person”. She’s been coming to King Street Artworks every day for the past four years. “I get a lot of creativity here and I enjoy being around people.”

Lisa Fowler is a weaver and also does bone and wood carving. “I like having a few projects on the go. I come here twice a week and I enjoy meeting up with people. We learn a lot from each other and pick up different ideas. The tutors are also great.”

Lady Susan, who had visited Stonehenge Aotearoa, near Carterton, asked Ian Chapman if the artists did trips to other places for inspiration.

“We try to do two trips a year and we visited Te Papa just a couple of weeks ago,” Ian said. “We tend to visit Wellington and Hutt Valley galleries but a trip to Stonehenge is a good idea.”