General News
4 July, 2022
Art project to bring together Avoca youth and community
Avoca Friends of the Pool is calling on local young people interested in bringing colour and life to the Avoca Swimming Pool to come forward, with a new project set to start later this year. The community group has received a $1000 grant from...
Avoca Friends of the Pool is calling on local young people interested in bringing colour and life to the Avoca Swimming Pool to come forward, with a new project set to start later this year.
The community group has received a $1000 grant from Australia Post via the Avoca Post Office to design and paint four panel murals to be installed at the main entry to the Avoca Swimming Pool, after members of the group’s youth committee put forward the idea.
The project will involve young community members working with local artists to design and paint the panels in a bid to bring together the two sections of the community who ordinarily don’t have the opportunity to work together.
Avoca Friends of the Pool president Belinda Costigan said the project was a way to get young people to take ownership of the pool and become more involved with the facility.
“We’re really wanting to get our local young people involved in this from primary school aged kids all the way up,” she said.
“We want the children in the community to become more involved with the pool, we could have put in an application to council for them to paint the wall but if we did that, there’s no interaction and no sense of ownership of the facility.
“We want the kids to have that sense of ownership of the pool and to feel like they can go there and be proud of the effort they’ve put in.”
Ms Costigan said the project will not only enhance the pool facility, but will also enable young people to make connections with local artists.
“We have three local artists who are volunteering their time to be involved with this and they’ll be working with our young people which is great, this will get those two generations working alongside one another,” she said.
“You never know which little budding artist might come out because of this and it’s a great opportunity for our young people to learn and develop new skills.
“This is what community is all about and why we’re doing this project.”
Avoca Post Office licensee Rebecca Wardlaw said it was important for the post office to support this project.
“Australia Post was handing out numerous $1000 grants across Australia and we wanted to be able to support someone locally who could get something out of it,” she said.
“This is a great project, it’s all about community, everyone is working together to create something which is important, especially after COVID.”
The project is planned to start in late October, with an estimated length of six to eight weeks.
One of the three artists involved, Brian Armstrong, said it was important for young people to be involved with art.
“It is important to get young people involved, this is a project they can get a lot out of,” he said.
Any young community members who would like to contribute ideas and has time to help paint the murals can drop in a sketch of their idea or leave their name and contact number at the Avoca Post Office.