Art Auction – 18th October

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10909076

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/9008702/Prisoners-auction-art-for-charity

http://www.voxy.co.nz/entertainment/prisoner-art-auction-benefit-youth-alive-trust/5/163551

Prisoners Auction Art for Charity
Inmates to auction off their art for charity
UP FOR GRABS: One of the pieces set to be auctioned off at October’s charity event. Masterpieces created by convicted criminals will be auctioned to help youth in eastern Christchurch. Inmates from Canterbury’s three prisons and other offenders serving sentences outside the wire are busy creating artwork for an art auction at Youth Alive campus in New Brighton on Friday, 18 October. All funds raised will go to Christchurch’s Youth Alive Trust.

Corrections Services’ southern regional commissioner, Ian Bourke, said more than 130 pieces of art had been submitted for the auction. The work was ”outstanding” and included paintings, wood carvings, bone carvings, soap art and flax weaving, he said. Many of the submissions were from prisoners participating in prison arts programmes, designed to introduce them to learning in a ”positive and non-threatening way”. Most of the masterpieces had been created by prisoners in Canterbury, but some artwork was produced in other parts of the country.

The theme for this year’s auction is “Manaaki Mai Manaaki Atu” (Care for our land, care for our people, go forward). Bourke said prisoners and offenders saw the auction as an opportunity to give something back to the community.

Youth Alive Trust was chosen to benefit from the auction because of its work with young people in the city’s east. ”The Trust is making a positive difference by building a future for young people and their families in an area that was hit hard during the earthquakes,” Bourke said.

Last year’s Canterbury prisoner art auction raised $21,000 for the Earthquake Mayoral Fund. Artworks can be viewed from 12.30pm on Friday, 18 October ahead of the official opening at 6pm.

The event will feature silent auctions as well as the public auction.