Youth Arts Roadshow

In July 2005, Arts Northern Rivers’ Youth Arts Roadshow hit the road with a six-month program of creative workshops for young people aged between 12 and 24, living in some of the Northern Rivers region’s smaller and more isolated communities.  A total of 45 workshops were organised, all led by professional artists and over 600 young people in 12 communities participated in the program. At least 170 of the participants were Indigenous.

The workshops provided young people with a range of creative experiences including hip hop dance, mosaic, mural design, percussion and pottery, available in their own community.

It also created an opportunity for them to learn from local artists, including several whom are leaders in their field.  These inspirational role models demonstrated avenues to future employment in a creative field.

The overall success of the project suggests the Youth Arts Roadshow is an excellent model for the delivery of skills development workshops to young people in communities where issues of transport, geographic isolation, limited (or non existent) youth infrastructure and “bad news stories” seemed to be a recurring theme.

The project also provides a fantastic example of inter-agency cooperation, to support youth engagement.

Through the Youth Arts Roadshow, Arts Northern Rivers established partnerships with schools, youth services and community organizations such as North Coast Area Health’s “Linking Youth With Health” program.

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