Internationally-renowned artist Graham Hoete - known as Mr G - spent a week helping a group of young people express themselves and improve their mental health by working on a large community mural in the central city.
"Basically this whole project is about the Tūmanako Project, which the word Tūmanako is the Maori word for Hope."
The artworks were commissioned to help brighten up the area, while restoration work is under way at the Arts Centre.
Graham and Melissa Hoete created the Tūmanako project seven years ago when Mr G was battling depression, coming up with the idea of painting murals of hope in communities across New Zealand.
"It was during that time that he really found what hope was. And out of that, we basically started doing art and it turned out we created a programme to help with mental health, using art as a way of therapy for young people going through suicidal thoughts or depression anxiety."
The couple ran a two-day workshop with the teenagers, helping them design the murals and create their own stories of hope.
"We find that with us sharing our stories through anxiety, depression, there's a lot of connection that takes place there. We find that a lot of young people come up to us afterwards and start opening up and making themselves vulnerable to us as well."
However, she said the future of the nationwide programme could now be in doubt.
"We've just heard that with the new government, a whole heap of funding's just being pulled, so we don't know whether our programme's going to continue on or not at this stage."
But the couple are hoping to continue helping troubled youth find a way out of depression through art.
- By Geoff Sloan
Made with the support of NZ On Air
