to 64 - Palmerston North City Council

A focus on Public ArtWithin the City CentreIn addition to public sculpture, public art can be incorporatedinto the furnishings of the street, building frontages and publicopen spaces. Integration of art into these elements should bethought through at the early stages of design. Art may berepresented in things like the form of a park bench, the designof an alleyway gate, or the design of manhole covers across thecity centre.The Urban Design Strategy emphasises that the publicrecognition and expression of the local iwi Rangitāne is a toppriority. Further the broader base of indigenous Māori arts inboth its traditional and more contemporary styles is also apriority. Māori perspectives of the arts is broad andencompassing, which aligns well with the Palmerston North’sArts Strategy’s aspiration to consider arts in a wider sense. ToiMāori is a term that can be used to refer to all the diversecontemporary and traditional Māori art forms. Some of themore prominent types of Māori artistic expression that couldbe reflected in the city are kapa haka, whakairo (carving), mahiraranga (weaving), whakaahua (painting) and other visual artforms, waiata (song) and other vocal expression includingwhaikorero (formal oratory), whiti (poetry) and tuhituhi(writing). Some Māori art forms are associated with ancestralknowledge and are primarily shared and maintained withinwhanau, hapu and iwi.With this in mind, the representation and integration of Māoriarts into the city centre fabric provides an excellent opportunityto create a unique sense of place that directly relates back tothe Rangitāne heritage in the Palmerston North and widerManawatū area.Body Language by Terry Stringer, The Square Te Marae o Hine43DRAFT CCF FOR PALMERSTON NORTH key directions [ kd5 integrating arts ]