Creative Matakana: the perfect excuse for an annual catch-up

Matakana’s seventh annual week of arts and food workshops will include some big names in 2024. Bookings open on Monday 8 January at 8am – be ready as some will sell out!

Each year in May, a group of Susy Smith’s friends from around the country head to her place, put dibs on bedrooms, unpack and get ready for a week of fun at Creative Matakana. They’ve been doing this since the annual week of arts workshops began, in 2017.

“We all go way back to university and nursing days,” says Susy. “Most of us are in our seventies now! It’s a great way to make sure we get together regularly. We catch up, figure out a dinner roster, get into creative mode and have lots of laughs.”

Susy tries to do something different each year – she’s done abstract art, writing, photography, print-making and more. A few of her friends focus on the textile workshops; they all finish the week tired but happy.

“One of the best things about Creative Matakana is the quality of the tutors,” Susy says. “I quite enjoy doing things outside my comfort zone, but once or twice when I’ve been a bit nervous it’s that fantastic level of teaching experience that’s got me through.” Team Susy is bound to be excited by the workshops now online for 2024. As usual, there’s a mix of week-long courses and shorter workshops.

Five-day courses include a choice of three visual arts classes (contemporary landscape, still life, cold wax), the various uses of indigo, textile art using metallics, making a greenwood chair, photography and creative writing. The writing tutor is a coup – author Stephanie Johnson, who won the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in 2022.

Shorter workshops cover contemporary calligraphy, creating a hand-bound book, making a rag-rug, screen-printing and bonsai. There will also be some fabulous options for foodies – sessions with global cheese and charcuterie aficionado Juliet Harbutt and, in another coup, Ahi restaurant’s executive chef Mike Shatura, who will demonstrate his award-winning techniques and cook lunch at a beautiful local home.

In 2024, Creative Matakana will turn seven. It will be a bittersweet anniversary, as its founder Jo Connor will be stepping down from the role of Creative Director. The hard work of organising a week of arts workshops is enormous fun for Jo, and she’s always ready for a knees-up at the end of the busy week. Her cheerful, ‘she’ll-be-right’ approach to problems, her connections and keen sense of humour have made Creative Matakana what it is today – a much-anticipated fixture on the autumn calendar for many.

A new model for Creative Matakana is under discussion, but it will continue to deliver wonderful creative opportunities in the future. Bookings open online on Monday 8 January, 8am. Subscribe online for email updates.

www.CreativeMatakana.nz

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