PM's Christmas Card Exhibition on campus

Deck the halls! Massey University’s College of Creative Arts in Wellington is hosting the exhibition of Christmas cards designed by children throughout New Zealand at the invitation of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Back in October, Jacinda Ardern put out a call on Facebook asking Kiwi kids to send their design for her official Prime Ministerial Christmas card – resulting in nearly 600 replies!

Jacinda Ardern wrote back to all the entrants, along with a photo of her design. “I loved every single one I was sent. Every entry was brilliant, which made it a very hard decision to decide on a design!” In the end she chose, not one, but five designs that will wing their way to leaders throughout the world as well as many hundreds of other people.

Wellington entrants have been invited to the official opening of the exhibition by Wellington Central MP and Associate Arts Minister Grant Robertson at 9.45am tomorrow. They will be accompanied by pupils of Clyde Quay School and Ridgeway Primary School.

Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Creative Arts, Professor Tony Parker, says the College has only just finished its graduate show, Exposure, a display of the final-year projects from undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in design, fine art, creative media production and commercial music. “We decided this exhibition was a great opportunity to highlight the creativity of kiwi kids long before they are of an age to come to art or design school.

“The exhibition provides a chance to see what kiwi kids think Christmas and being a New Zealander is all about. For this reason, we have hung the works not by age or region, but by themes including: traditional Christmas scenes; New Zealand Christmas scenes; lots of New Zealand flora and fauna; Kiwi summer holidays; icons such as buzzy bees and red top gumboots; families and love; the Prime Minister and her family at the Beehive; and [miscellaneous themes] kids wouldn’t be kids without an unusual take on the topic,” he says.