Wearable Art

The Montana New Zealand Wearable Art Awards
Suzie Moncrieff - Creator and Director

The Montana New Zealand Wearable Art Awards takes art off the wall to adorn the body in wildly, wonderful ways. All art disciplines are encouraged and entries display single and overlapping skills in sculpture, architecture, weaving, paper mache art, painting, glass craft, fabric design, even engineering. The annual Awards presents these art works as a moving exhibition on-stage. Entries are invited through nine categories and a pre-selection process determines those which will appear on-stage and vie for a prize pool of over $NZ50,000.

The Awards began in 1987 as a promotion for an art gallery in rural Nelson. Even with the drawbacks of primitive sound, lighting and staging (and the fact that few people had any understanding of the concept) it was an overnight success. Since 1987, the event has grown rapidly in terms of the number and calibre of entrants and the audiences it attracts. It is now staged in Nelson's largest venue - the Trafalgar Centre. Demand for tickets is high with all three nights selling out within days of being available, months in advance of the event. Over 500 local people now work on the production which shows the demands of the large event and the strong community support and ownership.

Nelson Sculptor Suzie Moncrieff is the creator and director of this unique concept. She blazes an imaginative trail of new ideas, and with input from her friends, family, and production team, those thoughts are channeled, tossed, turned and refined for the production. She steers all facets of the show and with humour and energy she keeps the large production team on track.

The concept of wearable art is now recognised as an important medium for contemporary art and it is a syllabus subject in many Schools and Polytechnics. Entries come from artists and designers all over New Zealand, and there is a growing number of entries from Australia, the Pacific, UK, Europe and Asia.

A telescoped version of the big event is choreographed into a dynamic touring show. This thirty five minute "Taste of New Zealand Wearable Art" tours on request both nationally and internationally after the annual September event. Static exhibitions of selected garments have also attracted wide interest and a selection of garments collected over the last ten years, has been curated into an exhibition which debuted at Te Papa - The Museum of New Zealand in 1998 and is now touring throughout New Zealand.

Suzie Moncrieff
January 1999

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