The
Southern Highlands Youth Arts
Council (SHYAC) is an incorporated non-profit association managed
entirely by volunteers. It has both adult and youth members on its
management committees. Each year it involves 50-100 youths (aged 8-25
years) in a major musical theatre production that is rehearsed
intensively on weekends over 5 months.
Young people often lose interest in playing organised sport but maintain an interest in creative endeavours such as music, theatre, film, and writing. Unfortunately they often have no clear path to collaborating with each other on ambitious arts projects outside school and can feel like outsiders, despite their talent. Schools in regional areas do not always have the depth or range in their educational programs to motivate, challenge or enrich talented students in the arts.
The current SHYAC Committee intends to expand the range of arts opportunities for the region's youth in its Production & Outreach Development (POD) project.
SHYAC is honoured to announce that it has been awarded a grant of $25,000 from the IMB Community Foundation for its POD Project in 2009-10
The goal of the SHYAC Production & Outreach Development (POD) project is to extend the successful SHYAC model to other art forms, in line with the original vision of SHYAC’s late founder, Jan Howe, of “art by young people for young people”. POD is the growth strategy for SHYAC to become a true regional umbrella organisation for fostering youth arts, in co-operation with government, schools and private enterprise sponsors.
SHYAC should seek to offer more performance, workshops and participation opportunities for its youth members: These could include projects in short film, comedy, drama, webcasting and other arts mediums. As well as maintaining its commitment to a major annual musical theatre production, an additional show with an upper age limit of 14-15 years so that principal roles can go to younger cast members is to be explored. This junior show might also provide the older SHYAC youth with opportunities to assist and learn directing, choreography and other stagecraft skills.
The POD project would also seek to offer new opportunities for young people wanting to get involved more intensively in other artistic and creative forms such as photography and film, cartooning and animation, journalism and creative writing, graphic design and visual arts. For example, a youth group could collaborate on a documentary about the making of a SHYAC show or aim to produce a short film entry for the annual Tropfest competition in Sydney.
A critical component of the POD project is the development of a sophisticated SHYAC website (a rudimentary site is currently being constructed to help promote The Wizard of Oz). This essential communications tool would have many aspects including:
The final component of the POD project is an active ongoing community outreach program by SHYAC including the following elements:
Young people often lose interest in playing organised sport but maintain an interest in creative endeavours such as music, theatre, film, and writing. Unfortunately they often have no clear path to collaborating with each other on ambitious arts projects outside school and can feel like outsiders, despite their talent. Schools in regional areas do not always have the depth or range in their educational programs to motivate, challenge or enrich talented students in the arts.
The current SHYAC Committee intends to expand the range of arts opportunities for the region's youth in its Production & Outreach Development (POD) project.
SHYAC is honoured to announce that it has been awarded a grant of $25,000 from the IMB Community Foundation for its POD Project in 2009-10
The goal of the SHYAC Production & Outreach Development (POD) project is to extend the successful SHYAC model to other art forms, in line with the original vision of SHYAC’s late founder, Jan Howe, of “art by young people for young people”. POD is the growth strategy for SHYAC to become a true regional umbrella organisation for fostering youth arts, in co-operation with government, schools and private enterprise sponsors.
SHYAC should seek to offer more performance, workshops and participation opportunities for its youth members: These could include projects in short film, comedy, drama, webcasting and other arts mediums. As well as maintaining its commitment to a major annual musical theatre production, an additional show with an upper age limit of 14-15 years so that principal roles can go to younger cast members is to be explored. This junior show might also provide the older SHYAC youth with opportunities to assist and learn directing, choreography and other stagecraft skills.
The POD project would also seek to offer new opportunities for young people wanting to get involved more intensively in other artistic and creative forms such as photography and film, cartooning and animation, journalism and creative writing, graphic design and visual arts. For example, a youth group could collaborate on a documentary about the making of a SHYAC show or aim to produce a short film entry for the annual Tropfest competition in Sydney.
A critical component of the POD project is the development of a sophisticated SHYAC website (a rudimentary site is currently being constructed to help promote The Wizard of Oz). This essential communications tool would have many aspects including:
- Young programmers and web designers can participate in its development;
- Promoting SHYAC productions and the POD project initiatives
- Acknowledging and promoting SHYAC sponsors
- Being the regional arts information resource for youth, SHYAC volunteers and teachers
- Providing youth arts related blogs and online forums
- Offering a showcase for youth creative expression (eg writing, photography etc) for both SHYAC and schools as well as competitions to attract new members
- Webcasting of SHYAC productions, workshops, master-classes
The final component of the POD project is an active ongoing community outreach program by SHYAC including the following elements:
- Schools liaison & collaboration with arts teachers in the region;
- Information brochure and sponsors’ kit;
- Website and email database to build memberships, audiences and to promote sponsors;
- Charity support partnering: linking SHYAC productions to a regional charity by donating a percentage of proceeds thereby raising awareness of both organisations, giving youth an insight into the plight of those less fortunate and engaging in practical philanthropy;
- Enlisting high profile patrons for SHYAC who live in the region
- Special performance and preview opportunities for sponsors and their guests as well as community benefits for nursing homes, retirement villages and the like.
Pictured below (back
row extreme right) is SHYAC President Allen Cupitt at the
Wollongong presentation for IMB Community Foundation grant recipients
SHYAC - Art by Youth for Youth. For more details about SHYAC phone the Membership Secretary on 0427 445099
Email: info@shyac.org.au