Y o u t h A r t s M e n t o r i n g P r o j e c t
Karma Barnes launched the <In.scribe> Youth Arts Mentoring Project in the Northern Rivers in 2014 as a community and public platform to engage local young people in community arts initiatives, collaborative creative projects, and to enliven the region with street art centred on highlighting youth voices. The project has evolved and expanded to include hundreds of local youth in creative art projects and programmes. The project has also delivered programmes in the Northern Territory, Timor-Leste, and Bodhgaya, India.
Youth are extensively mentored through skills development, community arts, personal and collaborative art processes, art therapy directives, and art skills development through creative arts-based mentoring programmes and projects. The initiative provides opportunities for young people and participants to acquire creative abilities in design, painting, drawing, collaboration, street art, installation arts, stencilling, paste-ups, journaling, live arts, public art design, and installation. Programmes give participants a creative outlet to help them establish self-esteem, personal creative development, and group processes.
The Regional Arts Funds, Arts Northern Rivers, Byron Shire Council, FRRR, ANZ, Many Hands International, Byron Youth Service, Kyogle Youth Action, Tara's Children's Project, and PHN Northern Territory have all contributed to the success of the In.scribe> Youth Arts Project.
A special thanks to our supporters & partners
CREATURES IN COLLABORATION WITH BYRON YOUTH SERVICES AND BYRON YOUTH THEATRE
CREATURES a multimedia arts production and public presentation project that explored the realms of myth, stories and creatures.
Young and emerging artists are explored the place creatures inhabit in our imaginations, folklore and society. Through the metaphor of CREATURES young creatives addressed meaningful themes, current issues and challenges that impact young people's lives.
The CREATURES Project is a collaboration between Visual Artists mentored by Karma Barnes, The Byron Youth Theater and electronic music artists to produce a public presentation of visual arts, animation, sculptural works, projection, light, electronic music and soundscapes.
ARTCAFE- WHERE ART DREAMS COME TRUE
ARTCAFE is a youth-led creative arts program that works to support young creatives in developing their art practice in a social and supportive environment. The project was established in 2022 and has run for the last 12 months as a Byron Youth Services program. The program supports young people with positive mental health frameworks through art therapy directives in an arts mentoring capacity. The project has presented a number of youth art exhibitions, published an ARTIST COOKBOOK as well as establishing supported pathways for young artists to present their work in a range of community arts opportunities in the region.
<IN.SCRIBE> YOUTH ARTS MENTORING PROJECTS Stage #4
OCEAN ALLEY - BYRON SHIRES LONGEST STREET ART MURAL
Over 2020 a group of 6 talented young people worked collaboratively to complete the final 20 meters of the now longest street art mural in the Byron Shire. The Ocean Alley is located at the Ocean Shores Shopping Center, Ocean Shores, NSW, Australia. The project was delivered in two segments pre-covid lockdowns and post-covid lockdowns, creating an important creative focus for the participants. The young people were selected from previous <In.scribe> Youth Arts Mentoring Projects to participate. Each young person designed and painted their own components of the work.
BYRON YOUTH SERVICES MURAL FESTIVAL
Celebrating reopening its doors Byron Youth Services post Covid lock-downs commissioned six talented young people to be mentored by Karma Barnes and Nickolla Clark to invigorate the entire entrance to the service with murals. The young people designed and installed their artwork along a series of walls stretching across one the entire front of the service. The artworks explore a range of themes including identity, connection to Country, Black Lives Matter and the perils and challenges of 2020, bush-fires and climate change.
<IN.SCRIBE> YOUTH ARTS MENTORING PROJECTS
OCEAN ALLEY STAGE #3
2019 SAW Stage #3 in our Ocean Shores Street Art Alley Way Project come into fruition with with 6 local young people collaborating on the to create the next 20 meters of the 100 meter art wall art the Ocean Shores Shopping Center, Ocean Shores, NSW, Australia. The young people were selected from previous <In.scribe> Youth Arts Mentoring Projects to participate. Each young person designed and painted their own section of the the wall in this segment.
<In.scribe> Youth Mentoring Project | Byron Youth Service
The <In.scribe> Youth Arts Mentoring Project has been run in collaboration with Byron Youth Services yearly since 2015 as an eight week program mentoring young people from across the region. Over each program the participants engage in an intensive group process that fosters self-confidence, group skills and positive self-esteem through exploring creativity and developing artistic skills.
Over the duration of the program each group is mentored in a range of arts based skills including paste ups, stencil design, mural design, spray painting skills and collaboration skills.
Mia Green a program participant expressed; "I found that the experience inspired me as well as building confidence in my abilities while boosting my self-esteem. It was great to be able to step out of my comfort zone and paint something on such a big scale. The message behind the wall is about equality as the characters featured are female and of various ethnic backgrounds. I was inspired by the fact that most street art is created by males and as a young female artist I wanted to rebel against that. My piece in the work is a woman of many tribes, she represents a combination of women from different cultures and races",
