Exhibition finishes on high note

A total of 86 entries were received in the final Rodney Art Awards, held at Warkworth Bridge Club over the Kowhai Festival weekend.

Artists Joan Willis and Wendy King picked up the two main prizes, as the winners of the two-dimensional and three-dimensional sections respectively.

For long-serving committee members on the Rodney Community Arts Council – Mona Townson, Joy Bell, Robyn Jones, Nikki Brereton and Joan Willis – the exhibition was tinged with sadness.

“This year we gave out all our remaining funds in prizes – $4000 in total – so that’s it,” Mona says.

The council decided last year that this year would be the last exhibition because it couldn’t find volunteers to help run the event. Some current committee members have served for 25 years.

At the same time, the council has found it more and more difficult to secure funding for publicity and hall hire to display all the exhibits.

The awards have been run annually in the current form since 2010.

The judges this year were Bev Goodwin, Garry Currin and Barbara Cope.

The theme this year was Dream On.

The winners were: 2 Dimensional – Joan Willis 1, Kerrie Cleverdon 2, Ian Anderson 3; 3 Dimensional – Wendy King 1, Rob Torckler 2, Amanda Eve 3. Merit: Ellie Greer, Rosemary Rose, Hilary Lewis, Robert Howell, Ina Shaw, Gail Taylor, Sue Williams, Emma Zhang, Katie Mitchell, Dagmar Kammler and Anne Kim.