By Gabriella Vukman
In collaboration with the Redwood Community Center in Warburton, Yarra Ranges Council Youth Team have reached out to local young people in efforts to add youth voices to the Warburton area.
These local youths have decided to put this year’s state-wide Youthfest funding towards a collective mural.
Open to all young people aged 12-25 in the Upper Yarra area, the project requires participants to submit their own artworks before September 8.
Working Together with artist Carla Hopkins, participants will submit works that remind them of or articulate Warburton and the Upper Yarra area.
Ms Hopkins will involve these works in an Easter-egg-type installation, scheduled to showcase late September.
During this unveiling event, all participants will be invited to come and locate their works within the mural.
Yarra Ranges Council Youth Worker Nikita Aldridge said “This year we really wanted to focus on the Upper Yarra, in particular the Warburton area.”
Artworks can take any form open to the imagination, from interpretive dance to paintings and song lyrics, all talent is welcome.
“We wanted to bring something to the Warburton area for young people,” Aldridge said.
Applications opened on the 28th of August and are accessible via the Yarra Ranges Youth Facebook and Instagram accounts. Works can be submitted via the google form linked within these platforms.
Aldridge highlights the lack of community space for young people of the Warburton area and said “there’s no reliable public transport to get them to somewhere that has a youth centre.”
“I think it’s incredibly important to give young people the floor to be creative, especially in areas such as Warburton where there’s not really youth space for them to go.
The Mural project not only provides the local youths with a voice and a chance to contribute, it is also an opportunity for the community to come together.
Aldrige said, “I want the community to feel united.”
“I’m hoping that the young people who have some incredible artwork can feel a sense of pride when they see this work on the mural and see their contribution to it.”
