CoCA - Centre of Contemporary Art

I am Marie Hudson, a proud voluntary staff member of CoCA and visitor host at the Canterbury Museum.

I arrived in Christchurch from London in late 1998 with an art degree and a teaching qualification in my backpack, and I gave myself one year. Within two months I’d met the man who was to become my husband and father to our two children, and one year has very quickly become seventeen. Funny that.

The thing is, it didn’t really feel like home. I hadn’t said goodbye properly to anyone in the UK. I wasn’t planning to stay. It just happened, and I went with the flow.

But when in 2011 the ground shook good and proper, the People came together, and for the first time, I belonged. I felt truly at home, at last. This was my Eureka moment: I didn’t want to be anywhere else and that made me happy.

Christchurch excites me so much.

Even while the adrenaline was still coursing through our bodies, the creative doers began to emerge from various corners of our city actioning opportunities that would have never been considered before, and I was watching it all with big wide eyes, dipping my toes in where I could. I found myself driving around town collecting quake-damaged china from homes, promising that it would be gifted back to the city as part of a public mosaic - and it was - and it is glorious.1 I dabbled with ArtBox as a volunteer coordinator and host, and when SCAPE 7 rolled around I gave public art tours through Christchurch. I danced with the Ministry of Awesome and was given a free t-shirt…    

The city is simply humming with potential and creativity and I’m loving it. I pedal around to get my fix of visual updates when I can, drinking in the changes. As a consequence I am now more familiar with the ‘now’ Christchurch than the ‘then’ Christchurch. I am very excited that the Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA) is reopening in less than six months.

When CoCA posted a request for volunteers, my hand was one of the first in the air. Bring it on. How can I help? I am here. Being part of something that is not just a re-opening - but a rebirth - gives me goose bumps.

I love Christchurch; and how it’s opening up again. My city is being reborn and I’m staying to watch.

Footnote 1:
The Crack’d for Christchurch mosaic can be seen in The Green Room (a Greening the Rubble space) on Colombo Street, between Tuam and St Asaph Streets.

Images:
Top: Marie works on the Crack’d for Christchurch mosaic chair.
Photo by Jenny Cooper

Bottom: Julia Morison’s Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers sculpture (on the corner of Gloucester and Colombo Streets) with rebuild activities and the Christchurch Cathedral in the background.
Photo by Marie Hudson