By Callum Ludwig
Upper Yarra Secondary College students headed up the road to the Redwood Community Centre on Tuesday 31 October to see their work on display.
30 UYSC students were among the 50 young local artists who submitted artwork for display, funded by a grant from the Victorian Youth Fest program, which can be found along the walking track on the centre’s back fence.
Youth Worker at Yarra Ranges Council Nikiti Aldridge said they really wanted to work with Warburton for Youth Fest this year.
“It’s been a bit of a turbulent year for Warbburtonn with the road closure andother political things happening within the town as well so we thought we’d get in touch with the young people of the area to produce something that they really wanted to do,” she said.
“After consulting with a couple of the young people they really spoke about how they wanted some artwork to be showcased within Warburton, something that they think represents the relationship that they have with Warburton.”
75 pieces of art ranging from photography to painting to pigeons can be seen along the walking trail by the river.
Ms Aldridge said getting in touch with Upper Yarra (Secondary College) was a bit of a last minute decision.
“We had a bit of trouble getting young people to submit some of their artwork and so we just had an idea where we sat down and wondered how we could get to the young people,” she said.
“Instead of trying to get young people to come to us, we thought ‘Why don’t we go to where the young people are?’, so that’s when I got into contact with Mitch Gray and he was amazing, he was able to pull together a workshop at the drop of a hat.”
Within a week Year 9 Level Leader Mitchell Gray had organised a workshop in the last week of term, and students were more than happy to oblige.
Mr Gray said anytime they get a chance to showcase young people, he’s all for it.
“For a lot of the kids, this is something where they excel and somewhere they could express themselves which was fantastic and I was really pleased to watch and see the different ways they did it,” he said.
“They start with some basic form and then they went off in different directions, they had a chance to do some written stuff as well as some photography and it was a fantastic opportunity for them to effectively be published,”
“Young people get a bad rap a lot of the time and I just constantly deal with such impressive young people so to see them out here achieving, feeling proud of what they’re doing and knowing that we’ve had a little bit of part of that, that’s a really nice feeling.”
Students Shae and Ariel decorated a pair of pigeons for their submission, with contrasting themes.
“I went for a fire theme, Ariel went for a water theme, and I did mine all about my friends and how they’ve supported me throughout the whole time, it’s based on what friendship is meant to look like for us,” Shae said.
“I think it’s great that we get to showcase what we’ve done in school, that we’re learning things and that we’re bonding with each other,”
“Knowing that people are looking at our work and it’s not going to waste is also really good to know.”
A special thanks was extended to Carla Gottgens, who curated the pieces for display and the ADRA team at the Redwood Community Centre.
The art will be on show until the first week of December.
