Maori Art Meets America: "Toi Maori: Eternal Thread Day" announced in San Francisco
Media Release 24 August 2005
Photography: Edward Casati
It's official: Thursday 4 August 2005 will go down in San Francisco's history as "Toi Maori: Eternal Thread Day". Mayor Gavin Newsom made the announcement when he visited the exhibition 'Toi Maori: Art from the Maori people of New Zealand' last Thursday night. In a live television broadcast, Mayor Newsom marked the honour by presenting New Zealand with a certificate of proclamation which pays credit to the work being done to retain Maori culture and heritage and for the contribution of the Maori Art Meets America event to the city of San Francisco.
The people of San Francisco have embraced the Maori Art Meets America event in an overwhelming way. Media coverage has been extensive throughout America, including television broadcasts and the event appearing on the front cover and in a three page article on Maori art in the 'Pink Pages', San Francisco's events guide.
As a result, visitor numbers to the exhibition look like they will exceed expectations with around 12,000 people visiting since the opening on Friday 5th August. The exhibition is averaging 2,500 visitors a day and this looks like it will increase in its last few days.
A further 2,000 people have watched the waka demonstrations and around 2,500 have watched the daily shows by Kapa Haka group Te Puia, from Rotorua. Today, the Kapa Haka group had a crowd of 1,000 people in the Yerba Beuna Gardens (outside the Yerba Beuna Center for the Arts) and this was extremely well received.
The travel agents who represent NZ in San Francisco have been inundated with enquiries and stunned by the success of the project. Air New Zealand has been overwhelmed by the response as well.
Attached photograph: New Zealand Ambassador John Wood (left) holds the certificate declaring August 4th 2005 "Toi Maori: Eternal Thread Day" presented by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (centre) on behalf of the California State Assembly and accepted by Darcy Nicholas (right), Creative Director of the Maori Art Meets America event. Photography: Edward Casati.