Thursday, June 25, 2009

PN Artists- Paul & Fran Dibble




You have probably seen their art work around the city; at Te Manawa, the City Library, and Princess Street to name a few.


Paul and Fran Dibble are world renowned artists who have chosen to base themselves in Palmerston North. One of their most well known pieces is "The New Zealand Memorial for London" which is situated in Hyde Park. In 2005 Paul was announced the winner of a competition to create a memorial for New Zealand in London's Hyde Park. The NZ government paid up to $3 million to secure the site and have the memorial created.

The Dibbles originally came to this fine city as Paul had secured a teaching job at Massey.While teaching, the Dibbles started up their own art business. They found that Palmerston North's relaxed atmosphere was the perfect place to start their business, and work on their art while teaching at the same time. As the business slowly grew Paul and Fran were able to leave their jobs and focus full time on their art work. When they decided to start their family they found that Palmerston North was the best place to do so "... it worked very well with family, when they were young within a day I found I could get the kids to school, do some teaching, work in the business, get them to after school activities cook dinner, etc, which in a bigger centre would be pretty impossible. Also when the children were young I could fit in the odd university paper some years" Fran said.

They like the quiet side that Palmerston North has which a lot of other cities lack."We often go for walks in the Esplanade, it is a really lovely Victoria park that is often overlooked." They also love the stong sense of community that the city has about it, which is another reason they chose to start a family here.

Palmerston North has even insiperd some of their art work. You can see some of this on Princess street, the installment called "The Nectar Eaters" deals with the flax industry in Palmerson's past. Paul also did a series on Huia feathers, the last recorded Huia was apparently in this area, while Fran is currently doing some multi-paneled works that include the "Manawatu maidenhair", a fern unique to this region.

Next time you are walking around Palmerston North see if you can spot their amazing works of art!

Monday, June 15, 2009

The McDonalds Manawatu Jets

The McDonalds Manawatu Jets are the basketball team who represent our region in the National Basketball League. They support our sporting community and encourage community spirit. Here are a few words from the captain Kaine Hokianga about Palmerston North and here’s what he had to say…



For more information about The Jets you can visit their website: http://www.thejets.co.nz/

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

CentrePoint Theatre

For all of you who don't know yet Palmerston North is the home to the only professional theatre in New Zealand that is situated outside the four main centres! CentrePoint Theatre has everything from comedy, drama, Shakespeare and other creative new plays written by exciting emerging talents from around New Zealand. We caught up with Alaina Moore from CentrePoint who was excited to tell us all about their new show 'The Raft', "Our cast for our upcoming show The Raft is pretty amazing, and we are very proud that they have come here to Palmerston North to be in our show. We have at the Theatre Owen Black who starred as Ethan pierce on Shortland Street (and has actually just came back on Shorty as a ghost!), Laura Hill who played Tony Warner, Catherine Wilkin who is an amazing actress with lots of experience, more recently as Liz Ryan on McLeods Daughters, and John Watson, another very experienced actor!".

Sounds amazing right?! Whats more amazing is that CentrePoint has been hosting quality theatre right here in Palmerston North for 35 years! And with the communities support they will be doing it for another 35 years and continue to keep the cultural vibrancy in Palmerston North alive!

For any more information on the CentrePoint Theatre their website, http://centrepoint.co.nz is great and easy to find what your looking for! You will recognise a few more faces on the website as well!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Creative Sounds Society Inc. and The Stomach!

Palmerston North is home to 'Creative Sounds Society Incorporated' which is a unique non-profit organisation that supports local musicians, artists and performers. They work to improve individual self esteem and community cultural development.

'The Stomach', their homebase on 84 Lombard Street, offers an alcohol/drug/smokefree venue for individuals of all ages to express themselves artistically. Here's Manager Craig Black and Sound Engineer Sebastian Hesp talking about this great organisation in our community...



For more information on Creative Sounds and The Stomach, you can visit their website
www.creativesounds.org.nz