Library Walls Come Alive with Children’s Drawings
The excitement was electric as tamariki watched their hand-drawn manu (birds) come to life on the walls of the Palmerston North City Library. Laughter and squeals of delight echoed in the streets as the projection unexpectedly lit up the space with animated manu fluttering and dancing across the three-story building.
The project began with a spark of imagination from Sofia, a 7-year-old, who said, "One day I’d it be my dream to see my drawings displayed in a space like this!" while referring to an earlier projection on the Library walls. Leanne Miller, project facilitator of UCOL’s Workhub facility, a creative industry-integrated learning space, saw the potential in this idea for something extraordinary to be developed.
In collaboration with Manumea Durie (PNCC Play Adviser – Community Development) and Sean Monaghan (Library Innovations Lead), the project was developed and designed as a tribute to the Central Energy Trust Wildbase Recovery and the manu they care for. With the desire to generate a technically challenging creative project, a series of workshops were hosted at the City Library and Wildbase Recovery during the spring 2024 holidays, where tamariki got to draw their favourite feathered friend.
Over 150 artworks flooded in from tamariki aged 4 to 14. The collection spanned from our iconic kiwi, whio (blue duck), red-crowned kākāriki, kererū, pāteke to many more in rainbow-filled landscapes, ponds, lush forests, and towering trees in vibrant colours reflecting the beauty of our region.
Behind the scenes, each work was carefully digitised, with UCOL’s Bachelor of Creative Media ākonga James McDonald collating and animating over 100 images chosen for the final project. A sense of rhythm began to appear among the contrasting shapes, sizes and vibrant colours. Once in order, short narrative sequences were born, where manu formed unlikely friendships and joined in shared activities from chesty heart-filled singing and frolicking together while others swooping and foraging for food before coming together in harmony. Each image was meticulously separated into layers, with the birds morphing and backgrounds being stitched together to form a rich and unthinkable visual tapestry, resulting in a 5-minute animation.
In addition to the night-time external projection, the children’s artwork was displayed in short showings in the Oroua Room on the ground floor of the Library. The mini-exhibition was visited by over 106 people sitting and soaking up the atmosphere, with birdsong helping add to the ambience.
Comments overhead during the Oroua Room showing included, “Wow! Spectacular!” “It’s great. Well done!” “Very cool.” “How special.”
It was also a delight to hear a tamariki giggling at the birds, some tamariki touching the birds on the wall, and some tamariki dancing in the lights.
Hand-drawn manu (birds) being projected on a wall outside the PNCC library.