Young artists on the Bellarine encouraged to brush up

COVID-19 continues to have a profound effect on young people across the region, but Bellarine Community Health (BCH) may have the perfect outlet for youths to get creative.

Announced back in July, BCH started receiving submissions for its first ever Bellarine Young Artist Competition and artists can still put forward their best work forward, with the winner and participants to have their work on display at the newly opened headspace in Ocean Grove.

“Young people have participated in various aspects of the establishment of headspace Ocean Grove, including participating in designing the ‘look and feel’ of the service with examples like the creation of a youth community garden,” said project lead of Ocean Grove headspace Fiona Cadorel.

“The Bellarine Young Artist Competition gives young people living on the Bellarine Peninsula the opportunity to showcase their creative talents and engage with headspace Ocean Grove in a fun and relaxed way.”

headspace Ocean Grove is located on Wadawurrung country and aims to celebrate a strong sense of place and connection to the Bellarine Peninsula.

Each room in headspace Ocean Grove is named with a Bellarine place name in Wadawurrung language and all artwork within these rooms is by local artists such as renowned local photographer Pete James and surf board artist Mat White.

Mr White will embed the winning artwork of the Young Artists Competition into a surfboard and this will be permanently exhibited on a wall in headspace Ocean Grove.

Artists who participate in the competition will also have their work exhibited alongside photographers’ work that was submitted as part of the ‘Love where you live’ photography competition.

The theme of the Bellarine Young Artist Competition is ‘Healthy mind, body and spirit’, which is the same theme of the current artwork on the windows of headspace Ocean Grove.

The artwork already on display, named ‘Mind, Body, Spirit, Culture, Country’ is by First Nations artist Riki Salam, who discusses the importance of people reaching out to their families and their community to be supported through both the good and the bad of life.

“It talks about connecting to ourselves, to the people around us, our community and to our ‘Country’, the land we live on,” Ms Cadorel said.

“This connection to ourselves, to our community and our land renews and strengthens us.”

Artists are invited to submit their art in A3 format by the end of September and those wishing to enter the competition can register by emailing [email protected].