Three North Otago women are trying to get a new initiative promoting local artists off the ground. 

The concept of a Waitaki Arts Trail was the idea of Joan Edridge, and Beth Strickland and Janette McKenzie quickly jumped on board to help.

“I heard Joan talking, and said ‘I can help with the marketing’, because that's my background, and then Janette is really good with the kind of admin/finance side of things,” Beth said. 

The idea is to provide a platform to support the visual arts in the region. 

Artists pay an annual membership, and will be promoted on the Waitaki Arts Trail website, as well as have the opportunity to take part in two open weekends a year, Beth said.

“So, basically for their membership, they get a profile on the website, and they get us doing the social media marketing. 

“We'll have an Artist of the Month in the newsletter that goes out to all our subscribers, which is already getting good traction, and we'll be linked to the Tourism New Zealand website, the Arts Trail New Zealand website, as many links as we can to promote the area.” 

The group is hoping to run the first weekend in June next year, to tie in with Matariki, and the second date isn’t set yet, she said.

“Our goal is to help bring as many people to the region from outside to help the accommodation providers and you know, the restaurants and cafes, and the town in general . . . we are kind of thinking shoulder seasons, or when there's not big festivals already here.”

The trail is not being set up in competition with Meet the Maker which also profiles local artists, and runs every two years as part of Waitaki Arts Week. Artists are able to be part of both, Beth said.

“We're just trying to make it a more regular promotion. So definitely, we don't put any restriction on artists as to what they want to join, it’s all for the greater good.”

Her understanding is Meet the Maker is for a broader range of creatives, while the intention of the Arts Trail, at this stage anyway, is just for visual artists. 

“At the moment we're just thinking for the first year we'll just keep it to visual artists to see how we go.”

So far the response has been positive, but more artists are needed to come on board to make it worthwhile, Beth said.

The group has set a deadline of December 1.

“Then we'll review and say, ‘okay, have we got enough?’.” 

“So to make it even more attractive, what we've done, initially the membership was gonna be $250, but we've dropped that right down to $80 a year.

“And we did that by deciding not to print brochures, because that's a really big expense, and also they go out of date so quickly. 

“So, we won't do brochures for the first year, but we’ll do promotions everywhere on the internet that we can, and then the artists themselves can decide next year what they prefer to do.”

All information and membership forms can be found online. The three are volunteering their time, so ask people to make contact via the website, and they will respond when they can, Beth said.

Artists who may be concerned their work is not good enough, need not be worried, there is no screening process to join, and they are able to classify themselves as early, emerging or established, so visitors know what to expect.

“We're looking for painters using all mediums, potters, photographers, sculptors . . . anything under the category of visual arts . . . but we'll just have those conversations with people.”