Summer City (Wellington)
Two of the guiding philosophies of the programme were the encouragement of more diverse public use of Wellington’s many parks, reserves, and beaches, and to be a positive inducement for families to conserve energy by remaining in the Capital for their summer holidays.
The Summer City programme started as a citywide outdoor performing arts festival, Summer ’79, created by Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe of the Wellington City Council Parks and Recreation Department in the course of her work forming new projects to promote the public parks of Wellington.
[3][2][6] Hamilton Metcalfe left the Parks Department in June 1979 and Nesbitt became the Director of the newly-named Summer City, now established in the Arts Centre at 355 Willis Street in Dransfield House.
The programme offered a very broad range of arts, entertainment and genres: concerts,[15][16] clowning,[17] portraiture,[15] face painting, circus,[18] dance,[17] modern music,[15] classical music,[9] theatre,[17] poetry,[19] film making,[2] movies,[19] story telling, festivals, comedy, magic,[17] fine art exhibitions,[20] flying lips,[21] travelling shows,[22][23] exhibitions,[15] Oriental Bay pavement painting,[24] harbour spectacular,[21] tagged fishing competition,[21] sky diving,[21] photography and making a film [1].
[9] Up to the mid 1980s some of the artists employed included: Stephanie Arlidge, Paul Baeyertz,[2] John Bailey,[2] Ian Barbie,[2] Rose Beauchamp, Jean Betts, Joe Bleakley,[27] Callie Blood,[35] Peter Boyd,[2] Allan Brunton,[31] Debra Bustin, Clive Carter, Peter Cathro, Allan Clouston, Andrew Clouston, Russel Collins, Jonathan Crayford, Terry Crayford, Gerard Crewdson,[2][35] Alastair Cuthil,[2] Peter Daly,[9] David Daniela,[36] Peter Dasent,[37] John Davies,[31] Tim Denton,[20] Anthony Donaldson, Neil Duncan, Murray Edmond,[2] Martin Edmond,[31] Janet Elepans, Fane Flaws, Rodger Fox,[30] Garth Frost,[2] Andrea Gilkison,[2] Shelley Graham,[2] Pamela Gray,[9] Mike Gubb,[2] Peter Hambleton,[35] Megan Hanley, Neil Hannan.
[31] Ross Harris,[30] Anna Holmes,[30] Geoff Hughes, Deborah Hunt,[31] Timothy Hyde,[2] Alison Isadora, Paul Jenden, Bruno Lawrence, Jennifer de Leon, Stephen Jessup,[2] May Lloyd, Louise Loft, Stephen McCurdy, Jenny McLeod,[27][38][29] Kassie McCluskie, Bill McDowell,[2] Blair McLaren, Jon McLeary, Rob Mahoney,[27] Tina Matthews,[2] Joanne Mildenhall, Jenny Morris,[2] Michael Mulheron,[3] Sarah Mulheron, Bronwen Murray,[4] Liz Ngan, David O'Donnell,[35] Mary Paul, Stuart Porter,[35] Jan Preston,[31] Shaun Preston, Ian Prior, Jorge Quevedo, Alistair Riddell,[2] Sally Rodwell,[31] Barrie Saunders,[2] Michelle Scullion, Roger Sellers, Brian Sergent, Duncan Sergent, Harry Sinclair,[9] Rima Te Wiata,[35] Allan Thomas, Barry Thomas,[24][21] Edwina Thorne,[2] Rochelle Vincent,[2] The Wizard[39][40] Tim Woon,[17] Sally Zwartz[2] The programme up to the mid 1980s showcased some of the following groups of musicians and theatre companies: The first three managers worked from The Arts Centre at 355 Willis street[2] Ken Sparks and Deborah Nation were employed under the Art Centre to deliver regular radio information about Summer city for Radio New Zealand's National Programme.
