MEDIA RELEASE

23 March 2010

Bag yourself an art bag at The Warehouse and the Titirangi Festival of Music

Leading New Zealand artists and illustrators have teamed up with Waitakere City Council and The Warehouse to help rid the west of plastic shopping bags.

Dean Buchanan, Anna Crichton, Judy Millar and Reuben Paterson’s artwork feature on limited edition reusable shopping bags in the latest ‘Bags Not!’ campaign.

The collectable bags, made from 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles, encourage people to make a difference by avoiding plastic shopping bags.

“The bags are our flourishing arts community’s contribution to protecting the pristine West Coast,” says Waitakere Mayor and campaign champion Bob Harvey.

He will be launching the unique bags at the popular Titirangi Festival of Music’s Village Night on Friday, 26 March. They will be available from The Warehouse’s four Waitakere stores from 29 March at a cost of $5.99 each.

The collaboration will see a contribution from each bag sold go to the Waitemata Harbour Clean-Up Trust, a charity that removes litter and rubbish from Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour and inner Gulf islands.

“Plastic debris makes up 90 per cent of what we collect each year and equates to two million litres of rubbish,” says Trust co-founder and coordinator Hayden Smith.

The artists have enthusiastically embraced the council’s clean-up initiative to keep the West unspoiled for future generations.

Internationally acclaimed Judy Millar represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale in 2009 and is the current recipient of the prestigious Creative New Zealand New York Artists Residency.

Karekare contemporary landscape artist Dean Buchanan has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand and his works can be found in many overseas private collections. His work features on the Henderson rail over-bridge.

Anna Crichton, winner of the 2007 Qantas Media Artist of the Year Award contributes to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Time magazine. She also illustrates for some of the most respected design studios in New Zealand and overseas.

Rueben Paterson exhibits in New Zealand and internationally. In 2009 he was selected for the Australia Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane and this year will exhibit at the 17th Biennale of Sydney.

The ‘Bags Not! Art Bag’ initiative supports The Warehouse’s ongoing commitment to encourage the use of reusable shopping bags and reduce the unnecessary use of plastic shopping bags.
Since the nationwide introduction of a 10 cent charge for plastic bags in April 2009 they have experienced a 74 per cent reduction in the use of plastic shopping bags, and New Zealand charities have benefited from the money raised to the tune of over $145,000.

The bags will be available at The Warehouse Westgate, Lincoln Centre, Westcity Mall and New Lynn stores.

Each design comes in a limited edition of 1000.

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