Shared Lines Collaborative (SLC) established in 2011, is a collective of artists and art producers building artistic exchange between cities, using art to develop resilience.
Shared Lines emerged out of the earthquake events that devastated Canterbury, New Zealand, and Tohoku, Japan in 2011. Artists are used to being adaptable in marginal conditions, often the first to act after a disaster to help the healing and contribute to the resilience of a community.
Born from the desire of artists in Christchurch and Sendai to reach out to each other in support, sharing experiences. The resulting art exchange (2012/2013) has since become the basis of a broader project to foster relationships and discussions in and between cities that have experienced disasters including Wellington, Kaikōura, Shiogama. Our current nationwide exhibition Pūtahitanga, made as a collective response to Covid-19 features sixty artists from around New Zealand’s regions.
Shared Lines Collaborative hosts an impressive 144 collaborators from New Zealand and Japan.
Shared Lines Collaborative Objectives:
-
Share and celebrate cultural innovation, resilience and connectedness
-
Prioritise mātauranga Māori into our practice and programming
-
Celebrate the arts of diverse cultures within Aotearoa
-
Provide opportunities for communities to access and participate in the arts
-
Increase the arts community’s participation in urban decision-making
-
Continue to build the collaborative to include and exchange with cities that have experienced disasters of all kinds around the Pacific Rim