What We Are Fundraising For

The MAGS Art Show committee is made up of a hardworking team committed to the largest annual fundraiser for the school, including principal, senior members of the school management team, representatives from the Visual Arts Department and the Performing Arts Departments and a group of committed parents.

Every year the MAGS Art Show committee decide what the funds raised at the Art Show are used for.

Proceeds from the Art Show make a real and significant change to the students and families in the MAGS community. 2023 proceeds will be used for:

40% New performing arts and media venue.
10% Visual Arts Faculty.
50% MAGS Lion Fund (helping financially disadvantaged students reach their full potential through academic and co-curricular activities).

The Lion Fund, supporting MAGS Students

The MAGS Lion Fund has been established to offer financial assistance to those families and students who require just that little bit more support for their schooling activities. The fund is there to assist as many students as possible to gain access to, and participate in activities at MAGS so that they can achieve their potential while being part of the MAGS school whanau.

The Lion Fund will provide money to support students across the MAGS Community; including things like uniforms, access to devices and/or enabling students to participate in sports or educational activities they may not have been able to without the support of the fund. Plus loads more.

Lion Fund - find out more

Above: Arwen Flowers, Nat Rose and Flox working with students

The MAGS Artist in residence program

This year the MAGS Visual Art Department has organised a number of Artists to visit the school and work alongside our students. This has been funded from some of the 2021 Art Show proceeds that were donated to the Department. This has given some of our students unique opportunities to work in fields and media they would not normally have access to at school, delivered from the perspective of professional working artists.

Arwen Flowers, an active exhibiting MAGS Art Show Artist, was invited in to share her unique collaging methods with our Year 12 Painting students throughout May. She spoke to these students about her practice as a professional Artist before sharing her processes which students followed along with. They worked on developing their own unique ideas that reflected aspects about themselves, on themes such as background and heritage. These students worked on square blocks so they can be appropriately displayed in the Art Show. These workshops were beneficial to not only the students but also the staff who enjoyed broadening their skill set.

In May, Nat Rose visited our department to run a series of workshops about traditional Maori weaving. Nat is a professional artist working out of Corbans Estate. Her first visit involved working with just the teachers of the department to educate them on working with Harekeke (flax) from a Maori perspective. This prepared our staff to support Nat in delivering three workshops with our Year 10 students who learnt about the processes involved in working with Harekeke. Students learnt to weave a range of objects with a focus on the Matariki celebration. Although time was limited, many students and teachers achieved a great deal. It was great to have someone visit our school to share their knowledge of this traditional art form and reinforce the relevance of Matariki.

At the end of term 2 the Artist known as Flox (Hayley King) visited MAGS to work with our Visual Arts Leaders and top service contributors in the department. They learnt about her successful Art practice and her processes using stencils and spray paint. These students will develop a work of their own which you may see displayed in the MAGS Art Show. Flox is an extremely successful brand in New Zealand and our ability to expose our students to her way of working is only possible through the proceeds and success of previous Art Shows.