What

The Creative Challenge is AWESOME’s year round creative program which operates in regional communities, celebrating the rich cultural and environmental diversity of Western Australia. The Creative Challenge encourages young people to appreciate and understand their individual and collective identity by exploring and expressing the uniqueness of their local community. The program is process-driven, and involves the participants to undertake research, conceptual development and implementation of an artwork that will communicate their point of difference, and instill a sense of place and a sense of pride in the place where they live.

Creative Challenge has always used creativity to be inclusive, to encourage independent thinking, to be adventurous, and to initiate a discovery of individual and collective identity, and 2008 will be no different.

Have you ever tried to describe yourself or your community using food? Well, now’s your chance….

Each community will be asked to create a gift box for another. The gift box is to be made up of objects and materials that have special significance from that community. The gift boxes are then swapped and each community will be asked to give their own explanation on what they think the gift box represent. Each community will then create a life size installation of a scene that represents their community. In other words a 3D mural, to represent and promote who they are. The young people will then bring their installations to life, using materials from both within the community and their gift boxes.

By having the challenge to create a scene, young people’s imagination will automatically be ignited by thoughts of larger than life characters, movies and far away lands. Such a project also opens up the possibilities to numerous other art forms to be incorporated into it if they desire such as music, performance and dance.

This project allows the participants freedom to realise artistic outcomes, through the facilitation of professional practicing artists. Through the workshops a work will be created which will communicate the participants point of difference and instil a sense of place and pride within their community and environment. This project will offer young people a new form of expression, a chance to develop new skills and confidence. The shape and direction that the work takes will be dictated and directed by the young participants in each community and will become a part of a giant tapestry of young lives from around Western Australia.