• The art project offers five free three-hour workshops facilitated by a local artist on weekends once a month in venues in Bega, Cobargo and Eden

A Charles Sturt University research project is working with young people in the Bega Valley region on the NSW south coast to produce art that responds to climate disasters such as the bushfires of 2019-20.

Project leader Dr Rachael Fox (pictured, right) and Associate Professor Andrew McGrath (pictured,left) in the Charles Sturt School of Psychology said the project, ‘Rural Australian Young People’s Experiences of Climate Disasters: Collaborating on Creative Action’, is underway but they welcome new participants aged 12 to 24 years.

“The objective of the project is to gather the experiences and opinions of young people in the Bega Valley about climate disaster and climate change,” Dr Fox said.

“There will be up to five free three-hour workshops on weekends once a month in venues in Bega, Cobargo and Eden that will be facilitated by a local artist, and all art materials and refreshments will be provided.

“Participants will work on making art about those opinions and experiences, with the end goal of the project to have a collection of art works that will form the basis of an exhibition, and possibly even a publication with the art works supported by the words of the artists.”

The project workshops are supported by and working with headspace Bega, the Cobargo Green Recovery community group, the Youth Resilience team at Bega Council, and Campbell Page.

The NSW Government’s Children and Young People Wellbeing Recovery Initiative project is funded through the NSW COVID-19 Economic Recovery Initiative and the Commonwealth and NSW governments’ flood and storm Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

The exhibition of the art works created is scheduled for 2024 at the Spiral Gallery in Bega.

To participate, please register here.

For more information contact Dr Rachael Fox via rfox@csu.edu.au or 0420 548 884.