Art thriving on Rarotonga
New Zealand curator and art historian Giles Peterson, is on his third visit to the Cook Islands. He’s here for a short break from teaching and also to work on future art projects, including an exhibition of young Pacific artists from New Zealand that he is curating next year for Ian and Kay George’s gallery - the Art Studio in Arorangi.
Peterson, a lecturer at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design in Auckland , has curated twenty- nine exhibitions over the last decade and has been instrumental in the growth and promotion of Pacific arts in New Zealand, and offshore, through national and international touring exhibitions.
Its been a busy year for Peterson. In May he presented a paper in Cambridge University in England as part of the Pacific Arts Association Conference on Pacific Arts. His paper ‘Island Styles “ – Pacific fashion, body art and adornment “ was well received. While there Peterson also attended the opening of the Pasifika Styles exhibition at the Cambridge University Museum of Anthropology and Archeology (CUMAA). Pasifka Styles featured the work of Cook Island Artist Ani O’Neill, as well as 36 other Pacific artists who created art work in response to the collections of CUMAA. The exhibition, the first of its kind in Britain, runs for the next two years and recently featured on the Tangata Pasifika TV programme in New Zealand. CUMAA has, after the British Museum, the second largest collection in Britain of Pacific taonga, including some magnificent pieces from the Cook Islands. Petersons’ review of the exhibition will appear in the New York based magazine Art Asia Pacific Quarterly in December. The exhibition explored a range of themes which are all relevant to art practice in the Pacific – identity and identification, globalisation and conservation, politics, spirituality, the customary and the contemporary, the politics of display, post colonialism and the big issue on the agenda- repatriation of Pacific taonga to their island homelands. Also on show as part of the conference was the exhibition Pacific Encounters at the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia – which featured amazing taonga from across Polynesia including very rare god sticks, fishhooks, adzes, textiles and other important taonga and cultural heritage from the Cook Islands.
One of the great things about Pasifika Styles said Peterson, was its cultural dynamism, the breadth of media on display and the contemporary and innovative handling of the media .He says a similar energy and buzz is also apparent here in Rarotonga, –from innovative textiles and fashion, fibre arts, to paintings, print making, sculpture, carving, (in all its manifestations) tattoo and body art, photography, the written and spoken word, performance art, music and dance . Peterson says what is also interesting is that many of the more established artists here share similar concerns, a reflection of his belief that art has the ability to make us see and experience things differently. Art is community,
family, life, says Peterson, it’s not news that Rarotonga has a thriving art scene. Artists here are building national and international reputations according to Peterson. There is a new generation of talented young people coming through, a new gallery devoted to Polynesian art has recently opened along with several other established galleries devoted to promoting Pacific art. Local media seem very supportive and international media are also watching what happens here with interest.
A wonderful arts tour has been running for several years now – connecting tourists, art lovers, galleries and artists and encouraging economic growth. Local artist’s work grace hotel rooms, restaurants and public spaces, there is a growing number of local art buyers.
Recently USP Cook Island Campus, under the tutelage of artists Ian George, Varu Samuel and David Teata ran a very successful art workshop in painting, block print and sculpture/ carving to assist emerging artists to develop a portfolio of work for degree level papers in 2007.
Its never been a better time to encourage young talented people that art can not only be exciting, but a rewarding and a very viable career option. This is something that Peterson aims to instill in his students back home.

-Shona Pitt