• Charlotte Hawley's 2017 Tui on the ide of the panelbeater's premises on Wynyard Street.

Devonport Arts Festival adds to art trail

The Devonport Arts Festival is back. For 2018 the Devonport Arts Festival has commissioned six artists to extend the Devonport residential art trail, in which 10 new works were created last year, “filling grey blocks, old doors, and corrugated surfaces with lively and diverse art” down Victoria Road and in locations around Devonport village and Vauxhall shops. 

The trail was a highlight of the 2017 festival and has permanently enhanced  high profile walls around the Devonport village and Vauxhall shops with street art/murals painted by local artists.

​Organisers hope that the additional artworks created in 2018 will encourage locals and visitors to Devonport to not only explore the new art but also discover or rediscover the existing 10 works. It’s also intended that they will act as flagship works as the Arts Festival Trust signals the return of the Festival as an annual celebration of Devonport’s creative energy and heritage next year, after three years as a biennial event.

The trail takes a simple loop starting from the ferry buildings, up Wynyard Street, along Bartley Terrace to Victoria Road and Albert Road to the Vauxhall shops, along Tainui Road, around the waterfront along King Edward Parade and back to Devonport (see map). The six artists will be working in the week prior to the launch, and the trail will be officially launched on April 28th with activities around the route Between 1-3pm at each address there will be art action stations for young people, and the artists will be there to talk about their works.

The artists creating new works for 2018 are Greer Clayton (The Milk Bar), Sam Melser (Bartley Tce), Robyn Gibson (Church St), Mark Edward Noble (Vauxhall Vintage), Component (Victoria Road), and Hamish Grotrian (Cheltenham Road). Component created one of the first Arts Festival street art works in 2014, and added another in the Festival last year.

So while there is no full-blown Arts Festival in the village this year, make the most of what is shaping up to be a significant street art trail, and look forward to a major festival in 2019.