Mural to beautify Tasman highway underpass

July 4th, 2013
[by David Armstrong]

The arrival soon of the Great Taste Tasman cycle trail through Tasman village and an ongoing problem with graffiti have prompted moves to paint a mural on the highway underpass behind the school.

The Tasman Area Community Association (TACA) has asked local artist and art teacher Adi Tait (pictured) to supervise a community beautification project that will see images of local birdlife painted on the 180 square metre concrete surface approaching and under the Ruby Bay bypass.

Changes to the route of the new national cycleway announced a few months ago will see most cyclists travelling from Mapua and Ruby Bay to Tasman village, then under the highway bypass to reach Harley Road and cross country to Riverside and Lower Moutere.

The underpass behind Tasman School is one eye-sore in an otherwise attractive piece of landscaping, and the locals want to make it a highlight rather than a blot.

Adi lives close to the underpass, and was one of the artists involved in painting the Motueka mural on the Elevation Cafe wall recently.

This year she completed a mural with some students from Nelson Girls College under the Collingwood Bridge on the Maitai walkway, a Nelson Youth Council initiative. She is a practicing artist and graphic designer and has recently been involved in the designing of the Ruby Coast Interpretive signs.

The Tasman underpass project received $1000 grant from Tasman District Council but more will be needed, especially to buy paints, surface sealant and graffiti protection.

Adi would like to be able to start the work during the upcoming school holidays, as she wants local students and their parents to be leading volunteers on the project.

She says the theme, birds of the Moutere Inlet, will go well with the other large artistic project which TACA wants to complete at the northern end of the village - a large sculpture on what Tasman people call "the nib" where the coastal road used to cut across the wetland.

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