The Incubator Creative Hub

09/06/2026

We're loving seeing the incredibly talented Leah Creaven featured in the latest issue of UNO Magazine ! 🎉✨

Leah Creaven Rugs, who works from her beautiful studio at Villa Studios, (Part of The Incubator Creative Hub Artist in Residence Programme), has just received well-deserved critical acclaim for her textile-based practice. But as Leah herself puts it so beautifully:

“What I feel matters most is the sense that the work resonates. That the viewers recognise something of their own relationship to land, memory or belonging in it. That particular connection reinforces my belief that textile-based practices can hold conceptual and emotional weight.”

We couldn’t agree more. 💭

👉 Read the full article – and then come experience the work for yourself. Step into Leah’s studio at The Incubator, see the textures up close, and feel that connection firsthand.

📖 Read the article here https://tinyurl.com/47mpapy7
📍 Visit Leah Creaven at Villa Studios, The Incubator Creative Hub

07/06/2026

ARTIST CALL OUT
Create your self-contained micro exhibition as part of WORN.

Channel your Vivienne Westwood energy, your brutalist edge or grungy textiles in one oil drum. We're calling jewellery makers, sculptors and wearable art provocateurs.

Fine gems to found objects. Precious metals to industrial salvage. Bold collections wanted.

Submissions close 14 Sept — limited spots.
🔗 https://www.theincubator.co.nz/event-details/calling-for-submissions-worn-fringe-feature-exhibition

This will be a feature exhibition in this year's Tauranga Fringe Festival 24th October.

06/06/2026

🎨 Meet Shona Mackenzie – one of nearly 40 talented creatives who are part of The Incubator Creative Hub Artist in Residence programme - Tauranga's one-of-a-kind creative community, based at The Historic Village, Tauranga

Shona’s work is just a glimpse of what’s waiting for you. With artist studios spread across 15 buildings, there’s always something new to discover.

👉 Come explore – wander the village, pop into the studios, and say Kia ora to Shona and the other makers.



Shona Mackenzie Art
Shona Mackenzie

05/06/2026

Give yourself the gift of stillness today. 🎁🖼️

Damien Kurth’s exhibition is NOW OPEN and it is stunning.

This is art you don’t just look at—you sit with it. Each hyper-realistic oil painting invites a rare moment of calm, turning the everyday (a crystal glass, an old jar, a patterned tin) into something mysterious and mesmerising. Think jamais vu—the beautiful unease of seeing the familiar as if for the first time.

Visiting feels like a gift of contemplation and mindfulness.

✨ Come in TODAY
✨ Artist Talk: 1pm–3pm – casual, no booking required. Just show up and hear Damien speak about his incredible trompe l’oeil works.

Treat yourself to an afternoon of quiet wonder. You’ll leave feeling different.

📍 The Incubator Gallery
🫙Open from 10am to 3pm

04/06/2026

What The Incubator team got up to on our recent planning day🎨✨

No social lubricant required (despite what you might spot in the video 😅). All jokes aside, the team rolled up our sleeves for a hugely productive day envisioning the future of The Incubator.

We talked through our vision and commitment to supporting and encouraging creativity in Tauranga and New Zealand — reconnecting with our values, celebrating how far we've come over the past 13 years, and mapping out where we want to be in 2036.

And in true Incubator style? It was fun, creative, and colourful. Ideas were flowing freely. At one point our 3D mindmapping genuinely resembled a crazy theme park — which we're pretty sure is how the inside of Director Simone's brain looks on a normal day. 🎢🧠

But it wasn't all blue-sky thinking. We also drilled down into practical next steps — what each of us will focus on to bring our dreams into reality.
(Yes, it did require plenty of high-calorie fuel. Huge thanks to the awesome food vendors of the village for keeping us going! 🙌)

🎥 At the end of the day, we presented our findings to the board — who added some of their own ideas (including Marcel's request for the board’s hydration needs👀).

We're so grateful for all the support that helps us be exactly where THE COLLISION BETWEEN ARTS & THE PEOPLE happens.

Here's to the next 13 years — and beyond.

03/06/2026

✨ OPENING SOON | DAMIEN KURTH EXHIBITION + ARTIST TALKS + WORKSHOPS

EXHIBITION

Opens Friday 5 June, 5.30 – 7pm | Village After Dark Art Crawl
Bar & Live music
+ 2 other stunning exhibitions
seeing.
Proudly supported by Gate Pa New World.

Working in oils, Kurth takes the things we walk past every day — a crystal glass, a worn tin, an old jar - strips them of all context.  That feeling of looking at something familiar and not quite recognising it? There's a word for it "Jamais vu". Kurth has built an entire career around it.
A multiple award finalist with work held in collections across Aotearoa and worldwide, this is a show worth

🎙️ ARTIST TALK

Saturdays 6th & 13th June | 1 – 3pm | The Incubator Gallery | FREE

Two Saturdays in the gallery with Damien. Hear the thinking behind the work, the philosophy that drives his practice, and what it means to build a life as an artist in Aotearoa. Free, intimate, not to be missed.

🖌️ LEARN FROM HIM WHILE YOU CAN

WORKSHOP
Pencil, Paint & Portraits

Tuesdays 9 – 30 June | 6 – 8.30pm | $200 | All levels welcome
Four evenings diving into portraiture technique, live model sessions, real conversation about materials. The kind of course that actually shifts your practice.

WORKSHOP
🧍‍♂️Bare Minimum Life Drawing

Wednesday 17 June | 6 – 8pm | The People's Gallery | $50

Live model. Relaxed vibe. Guided by Damien. Bring a mate and your favourite drawing tools. Doors close at 6pm sharp.

WORKSHOP
🫙Sentimental Still Life

Saturday 20 June | 9.30am – 3.30pm | $120 | All levels welcome
Bring one object that means something to you. Spend a full day learning to paint it, guided by the master of the genre himself. Materials supplied.

🎟️ Book workshops link in bio

03/06/2026

Some things can’t be put into words. They have to be felt. Seen. Held in clay. 🖤

The Incubator is thrilled to invite you to Coming Undone – a powerful new ceramics exhibition by Jo Harris, opening this Friday at The Pot House.

Using raw, unyielding black clay, Jo gives form to the invisible: the weight of expectation, the fracture between who we are inside and who the world asks us to be. Her figurative works hold tension, vulnerability, and quiet strength – and they will stop you in your tracks.

This is more than an exhibition. It’s an invitation to reflect on the masks we wear, and what it might feel like to let them slip.

✨ Come see the works for yourself at the exhibition opening:
📅 This Friday, 6 June
🕠 5.30pm – 7.00pm
📍 The Pot House, 159 17th Avenue, Tauranga South

Can’t make the opening? The exhibition runs until 27 June (10am – 3pm daily).

Bring a friend. Bring your curiosity. Come undone with us.

🎟️ Free entry | All welcome

03/06/2026

🎨 Looking for your next creative fix?

The NZ Herald recently named some of the best art experiences around the country — and we’re stoked to see The Incubator Creative Hub featured among them! 🖌️✨

📍 Tauranga’s own Historic Village is home to 16 unique spaces filled with working studios, retail galleries, thought-provoking exhibitions, and hands-on workshops. From poetry and printmaking to life drawing and knitting — there’s truly something for everyone.

👉 Read the full article here: https://tinyurl.com/53z23sjj

Thank you to NZ Herald for shining a light on local creativity. And if you’ve never visited us before — what are you waiting for? Come explore, make, and be inspired. 💡

🗓️ Workshops, events, and gatherings happen all year round.
See you at The Historic Village!

From glassblowing to bone carving, get hands-on in NZ.

03/06/2026

JUNE SNAPSHOT & FRIDAY ART CRAWL https://wix.to/Rh74au6

01/06/2026

🎨 You’re invited to be part of the magic!

Join us for our monthly launch event and become part of Tauranga's Local Art Scene.

This month’s programme features a stunning range – from students first foray in the gallery world to seasoned professionals with Master of Fine Arts credentials.

📍 Where: The Incubator Creative Hub, Tauranga Historic Village
📅 When: Friday 5th June, 5:30pm – 7pm

✨ What’s on:

🖼️ The People's Gallery - Toi ka Rere: Tūrangawaewae – Bethlehem College Seniors Art Exhibition

🎨 The Incubator Gallery: Drift by Damien Kurth (incredible trompe l'oeil oil paintings)

🏺 The Pot House Gallery: Coming Undone by Jo Harris (powerful ceramic works)

🖨️ Imprint Gallery: The Cube Gallery – intimate printmaker showcase

🎶 Live music + licensed bar
🧀 Grazing platter thanks to Gate Pa New World

At The Incubator, art isn't just hung on walls – it's experienced and admired.
Every person who turns up helps an artist take their next step, build confidence, and feel seen.

Come support artists from across the motu, bring your friends, and let’s fill the village with good vibes.

See you Friday night – let’s make magic together. ✨