The Sole Project: The Exhibition 2012

Featuring: rangatahi attending South and Central Auckland Alternative Education, and artist-mentors including, Otis Frizzell, Rongotai Lomas, Josh Paki, Cerisse Palalagi, Chris Ryan, Shona Tawhiao, Salome Tanuvasa, Darryl Thompson (DLT), Dan Tippett and Cora-Allen Wickliffe.

This powerful exhibition is the result of collaborations between rangatahi in alternative education and practicing artists committed to using their skills to mentor youth. Together they explore identity and culture through a wide range of art mediums. The exhibition features everything from photography, installation art, to aerosol art, animation and painting.

Join the art collaborators on Thursday 2 August 6-8pm, as they discuss their creative partnerships and give a tour of their artworks.

‘The Sole Project is a truly transformational experience for our rangatahi in alternative education’, says Sarah Longbottom, Creative Director of Nga Rangatahi Toa. ‘Many of our kids struggle to keep their head above water, but they flat out thrive with their mentors; artistically, socially and culturally. We have proved time and again that if you create a positive, responsive environment for these kids, they respond in kind’

The Sole Project: The Exhibition is part of Nga Rangatahi Toa Creative Arts Initiative arts programme, providing transformational life experiences for rangatahi through one-to-one mentoring in creative arts.

Nga Rangatahi Toa programs were established in 2009, aimed at ‘plugging the gap’ that exists for students who have been excluded from the mainstream schooling system. ‘Even though a push for the educational success for ‘five-out-of-five kids’ is prioritised by government, once placed in alternative education a student is not even assured access to a registered teacher, and there is no funding for creative arts’, says Sarah Longbottom.

‘It just seems crazy to me’, says artist-mentor Otis Frizzell, ‘I mean, if we want these kids to succeed then why not emphasise the areas in which they are more likely to achieve educational excellence, like art, dance, drama and music, rather than cutting them off from it? It makes no sense.'

‘The Sole Project will give you opportunities you don’t get anywhere else and it teaches you a lot about yourself’ agrees Ase Vakatawa, a ‘graduate’ who completed a 12-week internship at Shortland Street and transitioned into performing arts school, ‘It’s a good way of expressing your feelings. There’s a lot of kids out there like us, who can’t talk to people, who don’t have anyone to talk to. The Sole Project has taught me to grab a pen and paper and get it out!'