The Incubator Creative Hub 10 Year Anniversary

Nostradamus, the French Astrologer, apothecary, physician, and seer was not at the opening of The Incubator Creative Hub in October 2013. If he had been, we doubt even he could have foreseen the scale of the amazing events that occurred across the next ten years.
The Incubator Creative Hub celebrates ten years of existence this month with an installation of collective ephemera depicting every event from exhibitions, festivals, cinema screenings, gigs to creative workshops.
This magnificent tapestry has taken 10 years of content to create and has woven the participants, volunteers, team and audience into a statement piece that is fluid and ethereal. The installation is a literal stitching of 10 years of creative action into a quiltlike display that reflects the Incubator community itself, the people-powered machine that has driven the success and growth of the Creative Hub over one decade.
The exhibition individually denotes the team, the musicians, the poets the artists, the sculptors, the filmmakers, and volunteers contributing to this magnificent display. You get the picture.
Director of The Incubator Creative Hub, Simone Anderson was here on Day 1 and she is still here on Day 3,652. (There have been 2 leap years.) Her vision has become the reality neither she, nor Nostradamus, could have imagined. From one dusty red barn to an artistic hive of activity that now encompasses 16 buildings including a community music venue and cinema, 5 galleries 26 resident artists’ studios, a creative learning campus, a Whaikairo Hub and an exhaustive programme delivering an outstanding array of arts experiences to the Bay of Plenty community and creation of a memorable visitor destination in the Historic Village.
The vision has succeeded making arts and culture accessible to so many people in our community. Art breathes live and joy into our lives.
We have reached so many people who may not have otherwise had the opportunity. Art is for everyone, and art is everywhere.’
Whether you have been to one event or one hundred, a visit to see this exhibition will amaze you and remind you of just how many you might have missed. Or just how many you might have enjoyed.
This is a staggeringly huge picture of the Incubator Creative Hub’s contribution to the region. Both in artistic and social merit.
Here's to the next ten years of art at the Incubator Creative Hub - a true gem in our region’s life and landscape.

On display in The Incubator Gallery from the 20th October to the 4th of November.
Open 10am -3pm Monday to Sunday.