SIT Gore campus will join the Murihiku Arts Trail for the first time this October, showcasing the creativity of participants in its year-round Art for Leisure programme. Visitors will be able to meet artists, view their work, and see creativity in action on campus.
The campus houses a lively and popular art class – Art for Leisure - cultivated by long-time facilitator and local artist, Julie Duncan. “I’m more a facilitator than a tutor,” she explains.
Julie, who's been taking the class for around 20 to 25 years admits rather than retire “and relax and read a book”, she’s motivated to continue from the satisfaction of seeing her students flourishing in their creativity. “I love seeing people happy and improving and getting better and better with their art.” It’s more personal than that too. Julie reveals art is part of her identity. “I like art; art is me… it's the expression of myself, it's my talent, it's my friendship; it's me in a nutshell.”
She notices that once students start the classes they look at things in a different way and view their world with more perception, perhaps seeing details, objects and nature with fresh eyes. Then they put that vision into their preferred medium.
“I like people and I love seeing people feeling confident in themselves, realising that they have a talent. I like seeing people achieve; I like seeing people enjoying company with others… and dare I mention mental health! It's absolutely the best thing for making you feel good about yourself.”
A wide genre of people attend the class; it attracts people from all over the southern region, coming from as far away as Cromwell, Alexandra, Lumsden and Invercargill. Julie adds “once they start, they usually re-enrol and carry on with the class.”
She believes it’s because the artists have the space to expand and explore. “They can achieve whatever they want to achieve; there's room for all the individual styles and levels of artist.” Sometimes Julie will arrange artist workshops and bring in a guest artist. “This is how you learn.” she says; by seeing different artists show their skills and their craft. “People go from saying I can't do anything to producing anything!” The class has helped develop and enlarge the pool of local talent too. “Plenty of artists that have come through the Gore art classes now enter exhibitions; they are well received and selling their works.”
Visitors to the Arts Trail can expect to see a diverse collection of artwork created using acrylics, watercolours, oils, pencil and mixed media, reflecting the wide range of interests and artistic styles within the class.
To see artists at work on their paintings and artwork on display, the Murihiku Arts Trail will be held at the SIT Gore campus, Saturday 31st of October – Sunday 1st of November 2026, 10:00am to 2:00pm at 70 Kakapo Street, Gore