Raise your voice: young people in the arts

The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote for MCA Stories & Ideas reflecting on the impact of COVID-19 on the Young Creatives programs this year and inviting several alumni to contribute their reflections and hopes for a post-COVID cultural sector, with young people at the heart.

At the start of 2020, I began working with three Young Creatives alumni, Emily Lienert (2018–2019), Maleeka Gazula (2017) and Steph Sekulovska (2016–2017) to co-develop and present a series of programs for the wider arts sector, including a professional development program, ‘Working with young people in the arts’. Building on the findings of our 2019 GENEXT Impact report, my own Churchill Fellowship findings, and Emily, Maleeka and Steph’s expertise, we were excited to share our insights into best practice for building youth-led programs in museums. We wanted to expand upon how cultural institutions can support young people’s creative youth development, and highlight ways that museums can benefit from having young people in the building.

And then COVID-19 struck.

While some Young Creatives programs were re-imagined, others, including our professional development program, were rescheduled for 2021. These last 6 months have raised so many challenges for all of us in the arts sector, but for those of us working with young people, the stakes have felt particularly high – we’ve witnessed the significant social, mental and educational impacts of life under lockdown.1

We’ve been grappling with a whole lot of questions, including:

  • What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the lives and creative outlets of young people?

  • What role (if any) has creativity played in their isolation?

  • What might a post-COVID-19 world look like for young people?

  • What role can the museum play for young people in this new-normal, not-quite-post-COVID world?

I invited Emily, Maleeka and Steph to think about some of these issues and reflect on their relationship with the MCA and the broader cultural sector. Here, they write about why they wanted to be part of youth-led programs, and whether COVID-19 has changed the way they think about art, museums, creativity and the future wellbeing and contribution of young people.

1. Kids Helpline and the Australian Human Rights Commission have co-authored a report on the impacts of COVID-19 on children and young people who contact Kids Helpline; and the ABC has also reported on mental health pressures on young people.

Continue reading on the MCA website here.

Image: Artwork by MCA Youth Committee members as part of their workshop “Assumptions Roulette” for MCA Conversation Starters, September 2017.

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I acknowledge the Gadigal and Bidjigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the unceded land on which I live and work and I pay my respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.