TERTIARY
Tautai strives to increase its contact with Pacific students so as to meet their needs and to provide opportunities for them to be involved with senior practicing Pacific artists.
Tautai engages an established pacific artist to visit pacific heritage students at the Auckland tertiary institutions.The young emerging pacific artists strongly value the contact with established successful artists and the visits provide the basis of an informal ‘mentoring’ system that has evolved over time. A visit to a tertiary institution by an established artist provides the opportunity for Pasifka students to gather together, often for the first time, and start forming their own support networks. Whilst at the institution, the visiting artist also promotes the goals of Tautai and the various support programmes and initiatives ie: the Tautai email and newsletter systems, programmes, networks etc.
Tautai works with each of the tertiary institutes to provide a format that best suits them and their particular student body. Generally, the first visit of the year is an opportunity for the artist to talk to the students about his/her own art practice, about professional art practices, and perhaps wider issues. Subsequent visits allow for time to be ‘booked’ on a one-to-one basis when the artist can visit the studio space of the student and, if requested, look at their portfolios. This more informal and ‘non-institution’ critiquing of work together with the opportunity to discuss art issues pertinent to the student has proven to be invaluable. The Tertiary visit programme is currently only in the Auckland area due to the limited resources.
There has also been a demand for exhibition opportunities for tertiary students and the opportunity for students to build networks with their peers. As response to that, in June 2008 held the first of what are planned to be annual group exhibitions of tertiary student art. This will include work from pacific heritage students from all of the tertiary art institutions in Auckland.