Mayor Dan Gordon says he’s really pleased with the way things have worked and he is looking forward to continuing to get more artwork into the district’s street.

“It has been really fantastic to see the art works come to life and I’m looking forward to this continuing,” he said.

Over the past year the programme has created four new pieces of public art from three talented artists.

In the centre of Woodend is a colourful kingfisher and flax flowers, painted by Angela Doig, inspired by the nearby native wetland of the Tuhaitara Coastal Park. The natural environment also inspired another piece by Angela in Kaiapoi, this time featuring a white heron and kowhai flowers.

“The works celebrate all the work that went into restoring the park so the native plants and animals could flourish” says Angela.

Rangiora’s main street now has a tui looking after it, created by Mel Eaton.

“The design builds on the existing artwork on the fence behind the cabinet, and everybody loves a tui!”
In Southbrook there is a dash of colour and a celebration of te reo Māori, with a piece by Victoria Dowall.

According to Victoria, “Putiputi is te reo Māori for flowers, so putiputi power is flower power. The combination of words and flowers are a fun way to celebrate our bicultural nation.”

Chorus Community Relations Manager Jo Seddon says the Chorus cabinet art programme started as an experiment to stop graffiti in 2010 but has been phenomenally successful.

“It’s resulted in hundreds of cabinets across the country becoming bright artworks, which are now rarely affected by graffiti. Added to that, the programme has helped some talented artists further their careers.

“We are particularly pleased with the work this year in Waimakariri.”

Work is now under way to select the cabinets for the next round and artists can keep an eye on the Chorus website for when submissions open, usually around 1 July.