Sprucing up the city for spring

When you hear the words ‘spring clean’ you generally think of deep-cleaning a house – but a local organisation has decided to bring it to the streets of Nelson City.

The Spring Clean Whakatū Nelson campaign is an initiative of the What If Whakatū Nelson community-led taskforce, facilitated by Make/Shift Spaces.

Gardening, cleaning and painting are all planned for October, and city centre businesses and locals are encouraged to partake.

“Spring Clean Whakatū Nelson is about tapping into the sense of ownership that people have for our city,” Anne Rush, general manager of Make/Shift Spaces, says.

“It’s about encouraging everyone to make a small contribution, knowing that this will add up to a massive impact.”

This could be replanting unused garden spaces, installing new artwork on walls and doors, cleaning up graffiti, and generally sprucing the place up.

Businesses have been called on to come up with some self-generating ways to improve their respective patch of the city.

“We’re really encouraging businesses to initiate their own contribution so that their efforts will lead by example, and really drive the clean-up as a whole,” says Anne.

One that was quick to put up its hand was Red Art Gallery and Cafe on Bridge St.

They have been busy planting their front planter boxes with colourful flowers and have also installed a community book and art exchange outside the building.

“It’s a real spruce up for spring, we are making our corner of the city centre vibrant and noticed,” co-owner Suzi Stevens says.

“It’s given us a boost; it’s been a hard year, and we wanted to do something uplifting.”

Other businesses getting involved are Arthouse Architects, who plan on removing graffiti and clearing weeds, and Theatre Royal Nelson, who are sprucing up their outside lockbox.

The campaign is being supported by the Nelson City Council, Nelson Chamber of Commerce, Uniquely Nelson, Arts Council Nelson, Nelmac and RCP.

People who would like to join one of the volunteer groups can sign up for a range of working bees.

There are plenty of cleaning jobs, including cleaning tagged posters, as well as gardening projects and several mini-mural projects on Nelson Electricity boxes in conjunction with Arts Council Nelson.

The campaign will culminate with a ‘Great Picnic Day’ at Anzac Park on 20 October at 11am with live music and games. Just bring some food, drinks and a picnic rug.