In 2023 the Waipa Creative Conduit was piloted for 3 months in Te Awamutu, this lead to the formation of the Ōtorohanga Creative Conduit (ŌCC) which was established in 2024 and had a successful year operating under the umbrella of the Ōtorohanga District Development Board/Elevate until October 2024.
During that time the Ōtorohanga Creative Conduit offered 13 kids workshops including 2 clay workshops, tee printing, abstract art, creating a secret money box, led jar, watercolour artworks, felt tip creations, collage, silhouette art etc.
We ran 13 Adult/Teen classes ranging from 3 hours to 8 weeks. Workshops offered included photography, mahi raranga Maori weaving, pastel art, clay/pottery x 3, abstract art, movement therapy in Spanish, Tai Chi & art, vision boarding, drawing, pressed flowers, animation and life drawing.
Now in 2025 and going forward, the Ōtorohanga Creative Conduit is continuing to bring creativity to the community via workshops, events and exhibitions as a non-profit organization still run by Ōtorohanga artist and teacher, Rebecca Dowman-Ngapo.
The kaupapa of the Ōtorohanga Creative Conduit is to connect communities together, specifically the creative community with the larger community to build constructive relationships for creative people and create pathways to creativity for the community.
We believe creatives should be paid fairly for their skills so the workshops are priced to cover their hours, materials and venue and any extra made is then put back into the kete to reduce the costs of future workshops, to provide free places in some workshops or to put on free events for the community
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Aroha nui
Rebecca - Creative Coordinator - Ōtorohanga Creative Conduit
