news, latest-news

BALLARAT’S youth will create legal graffiti art throughout the city with the help of a new program teaming them up with professional artists. Lead On Ballarat’s ‘Take Back the Streets’ public art project will see young people aged 12 to 25 develop designs and paint artworks onto various public spaces. Lead On Ballarat project officer Emily Macdonald said it encouraged young people interested in tagging to engage in legal ways of doing it. She said the project aimed to create positive engagement with public space for all members of the Ballarat community and its visitors, with a focus on youth participation. “It’s a form of art a lot of young people are already interested in,” she said. “We’ll be identifying places where the City of Ballarat says it is appropriate and hopefully it’ll enrich the arts culture of Ballarat. “For our first project we’ll be working on some bus shelters around Sebastopol.” Under the brief, young people will work in small teams with one artist to develop a design concept for a designated public space or facility, in conjunction with property owners. Artworks could be abstract, tell a story, be decorative or share a message. At the launch of the project yesterday, during National Youth Week, young people gathered at Ballarat Learning Exchange to watch graffiti artist ‘CAX’ demonstrate his technique. CAX, the artist behind the Skipton Street Fish Shop wall, said for many young people graffiti represented a new and different approach from traditional art styles. “It has associations with pop culture and it’s got a bit of a cool element,” he said. He said the typography and graphics involved were certainly an art form to the trained eye. According to Lead On Ballarat, similar projects in other cities showed a high reduction in graffiti on public buildings and an increase in civic pride. Lead On Ballarat is a not-for-profit community organisation providing opportunities for young people to get involved in free programs and a host of assorted activities.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/resize/frm/silverstone-feed-data/d44984b5-cd27-464b-92bf-d109d97a4cb7.jpg/w1200_h678_fcrop.jpg