TiwiArt

Tiwi Art Footy Sale 2008

16th March 2008

Sunday March 16 was a big day on the Tiwi Islands and our annual Tiwi Art Footy Sale was indeed a success.  We had over 550 people through the doors of Tiwi Design art centre in just 5 hours.  Around $40 000 worth of Tiwi art was sold.  The popular items were the heavily reduced ochre paintings, screen-printed fabric,and the bird carvings.  Most of the visitors flew in from Darwin for the day - to grab a bargain from us in the morning, and then head to the grand final in the afternoon, where a great match was played out between the Imalu tigers and Tapalinga Superstars.  Congratulations to Imalu!

The sale was a project for the Tiwi Art Network and was indeed a large group effort.  Staff and artists from three art centres came together to sell their art in the sweaty and buzzing Tiwi Design.  Getting there was half the work!  With the roads on Melville Island closed due to wet season flooding, Jilamara and Munupi art centres had to juggle the logistics of getting art and people over to Nguiu.  Various charter planes and boats were involved, and even these were subject to the stormy weather.  Hats off to the Jilamara artists who actually walked through the flooded roads on Melville Island to get to the sale!

We were also joined by a small group of dedicated volunteers, so thankyou to Erica, Fran, Al and Amy for your contributions.