NorthTec arts programme at Kerikeri produces three finalists

The Applied Arts programme at NorthTec’s Kerikeri campus has scored an extraordinary ‘three-peat’, with two former students and one studying currently, all qualifying as finalists for the Ranamok Glass Prize - Australasia’s top contemporary glass art competition.

Second year Applied Arts student, Kim Logue, still can’t believe one of her glass art works produced alongside her NorthTec degree has her in the same company as her friends, Sue Hawker and Lee Brogan. “I have to keep pinching myself,” she remarked.

Sue and Lee studied Arts at NorthTec in Kerikeri and have gone on to become well known artists with wide appeal and who have had much success.

It was the first time Kim had entered the competition, and having her creation make the grade for the prestigious art prize is still hard for her to take in. “I was ecstatic and just buzzing for ages, I still can’t stop shaking,” she revealed after receiving the news. The glass art work she entered entitled “Exposed” uses a black New Zealand made casting glass that has steel nails sourced from the United States set into it.

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Sue Hawker, who featured as a finalist in last year’s Rannamok Glass Prize which she went on to win has been selected again as a finalist. She explained that she has stuck with the less common used technique of pate de verre, an Ancient Egyptian technique involving the precise placement of glass granules, for this year’s competition.

Lee Brogan’s entry is a political conceptual installation piece, titled “Fictitious Shores”, with 18 parts to it, and is a reference to a poem by Emily Dickinson.

Sue said it was always unexpected to be selected as a finalist, but was thrilling to qualify again for a third time along with Lee and Kim. “It’s just brilliant and shows we are all on the right track. The Ranamok is regarded as the top Australasian competition, last year there was just three New Zealanders contesting the prize, but this year there is three from Kerikeri, which is extraordinary, and we all know each other which is just wonderful,” she said.

Sue and Lee say the NorthTec Applied Arts degree offered them a broad base from which to launch a successful career from.

All three women are to fly over to Canberra, Australia for the final judging which takes place in mid-August.

ENDS

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