Alex Onesi, a Year 12 student, is aiming for art school when he leaves St John’s College. It’s possible, he says, that he will study at EIT’s ideaschool.

EIT’s ideaschool hosted a three-day Creative New Zealand series of workshops run by Tautai Horizons Trust for high school students interested in the creative arts and of Pasifika descent.

The 25 students who took part in Tautai’s Fresh Horizons workshops held at ideaschool over the July school holiday break were able to choose between three options – fashion design, screen production and drawing.

The Lets Drawing workshop was guided by multimedia, installation and performance artist Lonnie Hutchinson.

Lonnie is of Ngai Tahu and Samoan descent, and her creative practice is influenced by contemporary culture and Polynesian aesthetics and art forms.

The focus for her students was life drawing, still life and plein-air (outdoors) drawing.

Of Tongan and Samoan descent, John Tanuvasa led the Unconventional Thought fashion design workshop.
After university, John worked for five years as a fashion stylist assistant for Nora Swann.

His workshop was aimed at pushing the boundaries of design, challenging the students’ thoughts and encouraging them to think creatively and develop new skills.

They used unconventional materials such as PVC and card to work up designs from conception to completion.

A television director who recently moved to working in film, Jeremiah Tauamiti ran the screen production workshop.

Jeremiah has directed several independent short films, including The Legend of Kava and Ahoeitu, which won him the Up and Coming Director Award at the Pasifika Film Festival.

During his workshop, students learnt the basics of storytelling, from pre-production, through to screenwriting, storyboarding, planning the shoot, editing and post-production.