Blending Local Kiwi Culture in Artist Appreciation Lunch
The Annual Cherry Blossom Festival Art Salon 2018, which was held in November, had successfully attracted 10,500 visitors to have a visual feast at over 300 masterpieces by 90 local artists. With the aim to celebrate the overwhelming response from the public, Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple New Zealand organised an Artist Appreciation lunch on 15th December 2018. The attendees include the Curator of Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery, Abbess Manshin; local artists and their relatives; National Party MP, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi ; Labour Party Representative, Naisi Chen; Member of Howick Local Board, Adele White; Peter Young; President of BLIA North Island Chapter, Lintao Yu and Deputy President, Sally Wong and a lecturer at the University of Auckland, Nicholas Thompson.
The attendees had the opportunity to interact closer with Mother Nature since this is the first time the appreciation lunch was held along a corridor. Abbess Manshin expressed her gratitude to the local artists for showcasing their exceptional talent in delivering amazing artworks, which were able to convey stories. She hoped that the artists can continue to unleash their potential and creativity to bring pride to their own selves and contribute to their families, community and country. Abbess explained that teamwork was the most crucial element in making the Art Salon a successful event, especially the collective effort given by the committee members and Young Adult Division.
Glass Artist, Samantha Minnery, was first puzzled by the way her artworks was arranged by the organising committee. Nonetheless, after further thoughts, she discovered the concept of ‘Trust and Humanity’, which ironically added colours to her original expectations. She later thanked temple for providing a platform to display her artworks.
Elsie Lau, Vjekoslav Nemesh, Niels Nielsen and Ken Garrett shared their experiences for being involved in the exhibition and they are grateful for the opportunity given by Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery. “Without the help and sense of responsibility of the volunteers, we couldn’t make it this far,” they expressed.
Lintao Yu mentioned that we can see the enthusiasm of the artists and the amount of effort they have put in. He also added that although the organizing committee was not a professional team, but every committee member worked hard with the sole aim to serve the public well, which leads to serving the community by adding values via Art Salon. Adele White and Justin Zeng expressed their gratitude to Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple for making significant contributions to the community. They observed that the artists and everyone else have gained tranquillity and inner peace by visiting the temple.