Alice Springs Town Council recently held a ‘Battle of the Cans’ workshop as part of National Youth Week. Teams of young artists and volunteers competed in the battle, giving a much needed makeover to a local skate park. The skate park was painted in a hip hop graffiti art style reflecting themes and designs chosen by the participants.
The five day workshop, led by Brisbane artist, Kieron Wilson, initially aimed at helping reduce the unsightly and costly problem of illegal graffiti. However, it grew into a major project involving youth, schools and local youth organisations.
Alice Springs Mayor, Councillor Fran Kilgariff, said graffiti ‘taggers’ regularly vandalise and deface the Alice Springs Skate Park and surrounds costing Council approximately $1,000 per week to clean up.
“By offering mentorship rather than instruction, the desired outcome is empowerment, a sense of ownership and recognition for the participants,” she said.
Works by the schools and groups involved were displayed in the Alice Plaza. A people’s choice award and four finalists were announced during the first workshop. Finalist teams were then asked to help to paint the skate park, with the best team overall winning a $500 cash prize to put towards equipment or art materials of their choice for their school or youth organisation.
At a Council meeting held in late April, Mayor Kilgariff awarded a tie for first place and prize money to the value of $800.
“The decision to award a joint first prize was made to acknowledge a collaborative approach to working together to achieve the best outcome,” Mayor Kilgariff said.
Council received 19 submissions for the competition, which were made up of individuals and teams of up to four people from many local schools and youth organisations. Almost 100 kids in total entered the competition.
Alderman Jane Clark, one of three judges of the competition, has offered to put the contestants’ work on a website. This will allow them to keep individual, online portfolios. Council is now calling on aspiring local artists to put forward proposals in writing, identifying a site and a theme/design for a ‘legal wall’ site.
For further information contact Council’s Community Projects Officer, Cassandra Shultz, on (08) 8950 0505.
