Program Reviews

YCulture Metro Projects 2007/2008

I AM HIP HOP

Project Coordinator: Diana Juskov
Auspice Organisation: City of Stirling

I am Hip Hop was an after school workshop program offered in school term 1, 2008. It was held every Friday, 4:00-6:00pm at Herb Graham Recreation Centre in Mirrabooka.

The workshops consisted of a music component that went for one and a half hours with the last half an hour reserved for a healthy meal that the participants enjoyed before going home.

The workshops were inspired by the recognition that hip hop can provide a safe re-framing for many risk taking behaviours as competitive behaviour manifests itself into fun emcee battles and deejaying potentially becomes an avenue for a sustainable income.

The promotion of these workshops was designed towards students who often get into trouble after school as their schools do not offer relevant co-curricular activities for their interests.

The workshops have provided students with:

  • A positive and creative outlet to express themselves
  • Self-confidence to learn new skills and meet new people
  • Promote healthy activity and lifestyles
  • The confidence to gain potential employment after completing high school
  • The mindset that all of their dreams are achievable – option for alternative study
  • Amount Funded: $3000
  • Project Concluded: 21/4/08

CLANG FEST

Warehouse Clang Fest is a youth gig, organised by youth, for youth held at the Fibonacci Centre Blinco St, Fremantle on the 5th of May, 2008.. Clang Fest was an under-age gig in every-sense!

Clang-Fest will gave an opportunity to young musicians (some as young as 13!) to play in a safe, professional and youth-friendly atmosphere. The young coordinators of the event drew on all resources for the event: giving rare opportunities to their peers to help organise specific areas such as graphic design, publicity and catering.

The Clang Fest organisers used their peer’s potential to give all participants a professional development opportunity. Students helped organise everything from catering, graphic design and sound, to lighting, music and promotion.

In their own words:

“Many newly developed bands struggle to get a chance to perform to the public. Young bands are often alienated from the mainstream music scene due to their lack of experience in the industry. Clang-Fest will give us an opportunity to achieve recognition and gain experience in performing in the WA arts/music scene.

Young people are often excluded from attending and producing concerts/gigs because of the involvement of alcohol in the bar scene. Clang Fest will be allowing young people to attend an alcohol and smoke-free event with the promotion of the drug-aware message. It is a chance for local bands to get on their feet and get heard by other local youths.”

  • Amount funded: $2338
  • Project Concluded: 5/5/08

RED LASHES – RE0705

Auspice Organisation: Spare Parts Puppet Theatre

Red Lashes is an evocative site-specific performance that weaves together puppetry, double bass, song, shadows and the cavernous space of the old engineering sheds at City Farm.

This local performance was programmed into the prestigious UNIMA International Puppetry Festival to be held in Perth in April 2008.

Red Lashes is a devised performance between young local and international collaborators Sharney Nougher, Oda Aunan, Michelle Anderson, Brendan Ewing, Tim Watts and Jeffrey Jay Fowler.

The 20th UNIMA Congress and World Puppetry Festival was a gathering of international puppetry artists and performances held in April 2008. The inclusion of ‘Red Lashes’ in the festival was a unique opportunity to showcase the work of these young Western Australian artists on an international platform and increase the profile of all the artists involved.

The majority of the group are at a stage where they are gaining critical success for their endeavours. This performance allowed them to produce a new work to expose their practice at an international festival with UNIMA being a great networking opportunity.

  • Amount Funded: $2462
  • Project Beginning: 24/3/08
  • Project Conclusion: 11/4/08

DUCK, DUCK GOOSE!

Project Coordinator(s): Arielle Gray & Sarah Reuben
Auspice Organisation: Performing Arts Centre Society

Core consists of a dedicated group of young emerging artists in the process of collaboratively devising a theatre script, Duck, Duck Goose! (Formally entitled ‘Core’). Duck, Duck, Goose! aimed to develop a piece of writing created by young people, targeted at a young audience.

Duck, Duck Goose! was a unique YCulture project as it funded the development process of creating and publishing a new, innovative and local theatre play. Throughout the development of the script they will be mentored by a professional young theatre maker, Jeffrey Jay Fowler.

The mentoring opportunity provided Duck, Duck Goose! with the professional know how to shape the piece into a well rounded script. It also offered them an outside perspective from an individual who has knowledge and experience in devising theatre.

Jeffrey Jay Fowler is an established theatre professional with the ability to edit, rework and focus our material into a concise and dynamic piece.

The development period culminated in a public script reading at the Black Swan State Theatre Company studio. This session was attended by artists and industry professionals alike. This session also acted as a vehicle to provide constructive feedback regarding the work that was created.

The Duck, Duck Goose! collective consists of five young West Australian artists with the confidence and passion to become professional and self-sufficient theatre makers in the years to come!

  • Amount Funded: $1200
  • Project Beginning: 19/5/08
  • Project Conclusion: 24/6/08

WULULAN MAYA

Wululan Maya was a unique cultural art initiative featuring 30 of Australia’s foremost young and emerging artists. Literally translated from the Noongar language, wululan maya means ‘tomorrow’s home’.

The exhibition expressed the artists’ varied understandings and imaginings of contemporary youth cultures, now and in the future.

The project coordinators specifically wanted to create an arts event that worked from an inclusive framework. This meant that they wanted to create an event that was truly diverse without being exclusively for a certain demographic. The result of this framework was a diverse and eccentric exhibition full of different understandings of the theme: tomorrow’s home.

The curator encouraged the curatorial theme to be freely interpreted and manipulated by exhibiting artists, who ranged from installation artists, performers, filmmakers and photographers through to fashion designers, painters and musicians.

The coordinators and artists in the project were mentored by professional curator, Kate Parker and arts management guru, Rebecca Cockram. This meant that not only was the project great exposure for emerging artists it was a fantastic professional development opportunity.

  • Amount Funded: $3000
  • Project Concluded: 28/10/07

The Gowrie Community Centre, Cloverdale.

FUTURE GENERATIONS

The Future Generations project involved six workshops delivered over three weeks in the January school holidays, 2008. The project brought together youth from different cultural backgrounds to celebrate diversity through arts.

All participants were new refugees from countries affected by conflict. Specifically the project committee was made up of youth from Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Burundi and Sierra Leone.

This was an invaluable experience for the committee members to socialise and work with other youth from culturally different backgrounds from their own. This led to an increase of understanding from participants, and increased tolerance within the group.

Essentially, Future Generations was an opportunity for the participants to develop new skills in the arts and increase their self-confidence. The participants took workshops in African Drumming, Hip Hop Dancing and Photography. These were three areas that the committee identified were the most relevant and interesting to the settling refugees demographic.

The Future Generations committee identified that the project had:

  • Given participants skills that they can use in everyday life
  • Increased the English level of some participants
  • Given members something to do in their long school holidays
  • Given them an opportunity they would never normally be offered
  • Given participants a greater understanding of other participants’ cultures and themselves.

  • Amount Funded: $3000
  • Project Concluded: 29/1/08

Past project of:Drug Aware YCulture Metro