Media Release

1 May 2013

Place Making Palmerston North 2013 begins

Place Making Palmerston North kicked off the first of four rounds in a year long campaign at the fx2 Theatre in Square Edge on Monday night.

Five new Place Making groups, consisting of one team of retailers and four teams of residents met with experienced Place Makers to be inspired and encouraged in developing a sense of community in their spaces. The resident groups consisted of teams of Freyberg High School students, the ‘Urban Savages’ of Savage Crescent, Linton Camp Hub and Summerhill. The retailers group from Hokowhitu Village is led by the Village Inn Kitchen.

Personalised instruction from Place Making trailblazer and head of Creative Communities David Engwicht and from experienced Palmerston North Place Makers encouraged participants to use their creativity in their projects.

"There was a real buzz in the room.” says David Engwicht , “I was blown away by how people from the last round of DIY Place Makers have continued to turn their shopping streets and residential streets into places they are proud of. It was inspiring to hear how some neighbourhoods have moved beyond just making physical changes to establishing friendship bonds through celebrating significant events for the various cultural groups that live in the street" he said.

The current Place Making round will last for 10 weeks. A ‘show and tell’ event to share achievements and projects with other groups and the wider Palmerston North community will be held on Thursday 11 July. Details of that event will be announced nearer to the time, along with details on how you could be involved in round two.

ENDS

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