Coastal Creatives Gallery & Gift Shop is celebrating a milestone – the first complete year of creativity, community, and connection at Coastlands, Paraparaumu.
“What began as a pop-up has grown into a much-loved local space for original art, ceramics, photography, jewellery and textiles, thanks to the support of our community.”
With an eclectic array of art forms the Gallery is well worth a visit and adds well to the reputation of the Kāpiti Coast as the arts capital of the region.
Our very own Grand Master
At the 2026 NZIPP Iris Awards, Kāpiti-based photographer Karolina Stus was awarded the Grand Master of Photography distinction, the highest honour within the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography.
The award marks ten years since her first entry into the awards and makes her the only NZIPP Grand Master of Photography in the Kāpiti region.
Karolina was also named 2026 New Zealand Professional Creative Photographer of the Year for the third consecutive year. Over the past decade her practice has grown beyond traditional photography into mixed media, incorporating cold wax, stitching and plaster, with physical materials becoming central to the work rather than just a means of presenting an image — a shift reflected in this year’s award-winning pieces, which blur the lines between photography, painting, textile and object.
Karolina says the focus of her work has stayed constant throughout: storytelling rooted in memory, place, emotion, belonging and resilience, leaving space for viewers to find their own meaning within it.
Her creative language now also includes wood and, more recently, ceramics, treated as extensions of the same exploration rather than separate pursuits.
Karolina will feature as a headline artist for the 2026 Kāpiti Art Trail, opening her studio over Labour Weekend and the first weekend of November to showcase her mixed-media photography, wood work and early ceramic pieces together. Reflecting on the past decade, she says she set out to become a better photographer but instead discovered the artist within herself — one she believes is only just getting started.