Artist brings Beijing to Bolton Street Cottage

Chinese artist Ding Jie is looking forward to a big change of scene when she moves from Beijing to Bolton Street Cottage for a couple of months.

She is the second artist to take up residency in the historic cottage as part of the Wellington Asia Residency Exchange (WARE) programme – designed to build relationships between Wellington and Asian artists.

Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast says this three-year initiative will be of great benefit to Wellington's artists and art institutions.

"A visiting resident artist from Asia can influence local artists while in turn producing work that is influenced by our art, culture and natural surroundings. There will also be a chance for a Wellington artist to have the same experience overseas. That's got to be a huge plus for the arts community as a whole," she says.

"It's especially pleasing that this artist is from Beijing, one of Wellington's sister cities, as sister-city relationships are based in part on cultural links," Mayor Prendergast says.

Applications will soon open to Wellington artists for the opportunity to live and work in Asia.

Ding Jie arrives in Wellington tomorrow, and will spend two months living at Bolton Street Cottage while working at a studio within the Massey University School of Fine Arts. She will exhibit the results of her work at the university's Engine Room Gallery towards the end of her stay.

Ding Jie graduated from the Qinghua University Art Academy in 2004 with a Masters in Fine Arts and has exhibited extensively since then. She has an impressively diverse portfolio, covering sculpture, water painting and print and influenced by contemporary and traditional Chinese methods and subjects. She was recommended to WARE by David Tung, Director of the Long March Gallery in Beijing.

The WARE programme is a partnership between the Asia New Zealand Foundation and Wellington City Council.

Mayor Prendergast will formally welcome Ding Jie to Wellington at 5pm on Tuesday 15 July at the College of Creative Arts at the old museum building foyer in Buckle Street.