There’s nothing Denise L’Estrange-Corbet likes more than hitting the road and visiting the art studios where masterpieces are created every year for the IHC Art Awards. Senior writer Mary Anne Gill spoke to her on a recent trip to the Waikato.
Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet centre rear, with Art Centre artists from Enrich+ Supported Activities in Te Awamutu. From left: Stevie Cook, Unity Collins, Leanne Cummins, Julie Tate, Ian Cotterell, Ben Bayer, Hannah Macfarlane. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Fashion designer Denise L’Estrange-Corbet is used to travelling the world in search of creativity, but it is in places like Hamilton and Te Awamutu where talent truly blows her away.
Last month, at Grey Street Studio and Gallery on Teasdale, the businessperson – who became a dame in 2018 for her services to fashion and the community – saw the art created by intellectually disabled artists.
“It’s just amazing the artwork that comes out and just how the artists have developed,” she says of the annual IHC Art Awards which she has been involved with since 2009 and is now the ambassador.
Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet in Te Awamutu with Enrich Group interim chief executive Janne Nottage in front of one of the murals done by Gallery on Teasdale artists. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Hence her trip to the two Waikato studios to check out artists’ work in progress and to encourage others to take part in the awards.
They were founded by IHC in 2004 as a platform for showcasing the artistic talents of those with intellectual, physical or sensory disabilities so their talent could be recognised, their voices heard, and their art sold.
Entries are open later this month to New Zealanders aged 13 or over with an intellectual disability or an intellectual disability and close mid-May.
Cherie Mellsop of the Grey Street Studio in Hamilton came third last year with her Veil of Gold piece continuing a strong tradition for artists from the former Sandz studio.
She herself won in 2009 as did Paul Sedgwick in 2007.
Enrich Plus artists in Te Awamutu, who work out of Gallery on Teasdale, have also featured in the awards plus one of their masterpieces is on display in Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan’s office.
Art facilitator Teresa Siemonek and artists Deshan Walallavita, Julie Tate, Kathleen Bayer and Caitlin Thomas were commissioned to produce Tuiana after receiving a grant from the Creative Communities Scheme to produce a piece for the mayor.
Using the award-winning Enrich artists was a no brainer, said O’Regan at the time.
“That’s part of strengthening our communities, understanding the diversity that sits within and being welcoming to that diversity and celebrating those successes.”
Grey Street artists are, from left Emma White, Deshan Walallavita, Sharon Gleeson and Mai-chi Tran at the bench. Photo: Supplied.
Siemonek, a renowned Te Awamutu artist with works on display around the town, and support worker Maree Glass in Hamilton have both been working with artists for the past 12 years.
IHC added a new $5000 award sponsored by the Holdsworth Charitable Trust last year for the best studio. The money can be used for materials, equipment or on tutor salaries. It was won by The Shed Creative Space in Paraparaumu and Ōtaki.
Siemonek, Glass and others like them around the country in art studios are integral to the awards’ success, says Dame Denise.
“The talent is in there, it’s in the artist but it’s just having someone to show them, having all the tools there, the paints and then they can work in any medium they want.
“Then when we see the art for the awards each year, some people put in rugs, some people send in jewellery, pottery, sculptures, painting, drawings. It can be anything.
“The quality is amazing and what surprises me, if you didn’t know it was work from someone with a disability, you wouldn’t know,” she says.
A mural completed by Enrich Plus artists is on display in the organisation’s Te Awamutu board room. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Dame Denise co-founded World fashion label in 1989 and it has gone on to become one of the country’s iconic brands for its avant garde fashion lines for people, leather goods and accessories.
Her philanthropy includes supporting mental health, diabetes, Starship, Leukaemia and Blood Cancer Foundation.
When she was asked to become involved with the IHC Art Awards, she leaped at the opportunity.
“I didn’t for a minute think it would impact me how it has.”
In 2019, Dame Denise launched a range of World limited edition canvas bags featuring the full colour artworks of intellectually disabled artists. All the profits from the bags goes to the artists and the IHC awards.
Meeting the artists is still a highlight and many of them have become close friends.
Mayoral artwork: Teresa Siemonek, Julie Tate, Kathleen Bayer, Deshan Walallavita and Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan in front of Tuiana, which hangs in her office in Te Awamutu. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
“Some of the stories are really sad and some of them are really uplifting about their backgrounds and how they ended up where they are and that’s why I think art is such an important thing for them to do.”
Dame Denise is used to working with high functioning people in the fashion industry.
“I don’t think there’s a wider divide. I work in an industry where beauty is everything where looking a certain way is everything. And then the other end of the spectrum are the people that have no idea that’s even going on. I prefer those people.
“The whole time I’ve been working with the IHC, I’ve never had a person with a disability say a mean thing to me or be nasty, but I’ve had lots of people in fashion say it.
“It’s just really nice to work with people that don’t have that gene. It’s not part of their psyche,” she says.
All framed or mounted entries are displayed after judging at Webb’s Auction House in Wellington and online. A People’s Choice award is also made.
Last year there were about 400 entries, half of which sold. All money goes directly to the artists.
“For the artists’ work to be shown in an actual art space is special. The gallery is amazing, and they are hung so well. So many people go in and can’t believe that it is artwork by people with disabilities because it’s hanging in Webbs.”
Enrich Group interim chief executive Janne Nottage said it was an honour to host Dame Denise in Te Awamutu.
The artists, many of whom have already completed their pieces for the IHC Art Awards, appreciated her visit.
Their entries will go on display at Gallery on Teasdale before they go away for judging.
“We did that for the first time last year and whānau and supporters really appreciated it.”
Enrich Plus Supported Activities team leader Ngawai Hamblin, left, and art facilitator Teresa Siemonek, right with Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet in the Te Awamutu Gallery on Teasdale. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
