The curves and bowl of Katikati’s skatepark will be transformed with street art at the hands and imaginations of local youth this month.

Katikati Open Air Art (KOAA) has been working on a project to make over the skatepark’s surfaces for more than a year.

A design process was undertaken in March last year and KOAA arts coordinator Peri St John-Ives has since been working hard in the background to turn the youth-initiated dream into reality.

Now it’s time to get the spray paint out – with Katikati youth encouraged to turn up at the Fairview Rd skatepark on the weekend of June 20-21 between 9am and 5pm to take part.

St John-Ives said the street art project will be a four-day event – from June 19-22 – with Tauranga-based street artist Kalib Wallace commissioned to lead it.

Wallace is known for his commissioned artworks around Western Bay of Plenty and for mentoring Te Puke youth via his 247 Health and Fitness gym in the township.

“The Friday [June 19] and the Monday will mainly be for Katikati College students chosen by teachers to participate in the project,” St John-Ives said.

“But on the Saturday and Sunday, youth aged 7 to 17 are welcome to just turn up to get involved. He [Wallace] has a capacity to take on 50 at the most.

“If more youth turn up, we will not turn them away – they can have a go at spray-painting and being part of it.”

St John-Ives said all paint and associated art equipment will be provided. “All those who want to participate need to do is get there and bring their own food and water. No art experience is needed.”

Wallace will teach local youth street art techniques using spray paint – and together they would spray-paint the surface of the skate bowl to enhance the area for those who use it – mainly rangatahi (youngsters).

“The street art will be applied to curved parts of the skate bowl and jumps at the park.

“There will be some kickback from the community about the art making the curved parts slippery but we have consulted with professional skaters and they have advised that we just use spray paint [to keep the surfaces safe to use].”

St John-Ives said the idea for the street art tuition and work to the skatepark came from local skaters.

“The idea came from me visiting the skate park with my kids. I was talking to local boy Pewee Tewhakaara, 10, who uses the skate park regularly,” she said. “He wanted to see the skatepark look more exciting and inviting.”

After taking on Pewee’s thoughts and comments, she went away with a plan to turn his vision into reality.

Katikati boy Pewee Tewhakaara, 10, helped create the idea of covering the skatepark with street art. Photo / Merle Cave

The 10-year-old told Katikati News it was awesome the street art would happen and he planned to be there to take part. “Yeah! It will be good,” he said.

St John-Ives said once she started to work on the project she connected with Katikati Community Led Development (KCLD) group, which is working on a separate project for the area surrounding the skatepark. “We are two separate groups but we do talk to each other.”

St John-Ives said the council was the main artwork sponsor at this month’s event. “We’ve also had support from Skate Pro, the Acorn Foundation, Katch Katikati, Creative Bay of Plenty and the Tauranga Western Bay Community Event Fund.”

WBOPDC reserves and facilities manager Peter Watson said weather permitting, the skatepark’s surface would be upgraded by Judea-Based concrete specialist Grind King before the event. “It includes diamond grinding of the concrete surface to remove weathered concrete, and repair holes and cracks –followed by the application of a two-coat sealer to preserve the concrete surface,” he said.

St John-Ives said a reveal on June 28 will celebrate the artwork that Wallace and local youth create.

“We’ll have a DJ, some food, music and giveaways. We’ve had a company in Denmark send us a whole heap of skateboards and merch[andise] that we will give away.”

St John-Ives said after she’d sent a heap of emails to NZ-based skateboard companies, she got a reply from SkatePro, which is linked to a Denmark skateboard entity, and a large shipment of free skate gear arrived.

“SkatePro have been incredible and have really been behind the project. I’m really excited to give out the skateboards, hoodies and other merchandise at the reveal,” St John-Ives said. “We’ll also have skateboarder and BMX-ers coming along to host demos.”

She said if wet weather was forecast for the reveal date, it will be postponed to the following weekend. The community can check for updates on Katikati Open Air Art’s Facebook page.