The winners of the 2024 People’s Choice Awards. Above left Ava Hendrick’s piece, Stars in A far Galaxy, and right, Skarlett Beveridge’s work, Internal Beauty.
The Rotary Club of Erina has supported the art of young people on the Central Coast through two recent exhibitions. The club will continue to support these projects as the opportunities become available. The 2024 competiton is detailed below.
2024 Winners Announced
Both People’s Choice were from Erina High School
First place with 16 votes – will receive the $100 Eckersley’s voucher Ava Hendrick’s ‘Stars in Far Galaxy’ “Blend of art style. Van Gogh meets indigenous art” a voter commented.
Second place with 11 votes – will receive the $50 Eckersley’s voucher Skarlett Betteridge’s ‘Internal Beauty’ – “LOVED IT!! Such a cool concept.” one young voter commented.
Thank you to all who supported this wonderful exhibtion of our local young peole’s talent, to those that attended and those that also took the time to vote. A noteable appreciation of staff of Central Coast Council that both partnered in the curation and supported the project launch and exhibition promotion. Erina High School will be distributing the Eckersley e-vouchers to the winners.
IMAGINE A WORLD FULL OF HOPE 2024 EXHIBITION
This exhibition is a celebration of youth culture of local high school students, presented by
The Arcade Gallery in partnership with eMerge, supported by Central Coast Council and Erina Rotary Club in recognition of Rotarian Youth Service Month. Erina Rotary Club has coordinated the exhibition of contemporary artworks by local High School students from Erina and Terrigal as a part of the celebration of Youth Services month in the Rotarian calendar. Supported by Central Coast Council, the exhibition aims to showcase the cutting-edge creativity and culture of our local young people. The exhibition focuses on the use of mixed media and technology to support their self-expression and creative endeavours. This year the public will have the chance to vote for their favourite artwork in a ‘People’s Choice’ Award, using the QR code by the picture.
The competition is sponsored
by Eckersley’s, the national art supplies retailers, the artist with the most votes will win a $100 voucher and second place a $50 voucher.
Erina Rotary Club’s President, Fiona Morrison explained “Creating a world full of hope is the theme of Rotary this year and was also the aspiration of a very famous artist – a poet, visual artist and most known as a prolific musician – John Lennon, who said he felt that his role as an artist is to try and express what we all feel.” She added “These young artists have shared with us their perspective on this, their viewpoints of the world around them.”
Teachers Gail Wright of Terrigal High School, and Katie Porter of Erina High School, have been keen supporters of the exhibition and submitted their students’ artworks for the occasion, with Council’s Youth Services, Jen Dias assisting in the set up and curation of the exhibition. Terrigal Art Teacher Kara Middleby, said “It’s a great opportunity for the students to be able to present their artworks to the broader community as well as their families and friends.” Fefe added, “The gallery space is free and open to the general public visiting the library, which means so many people will see the artworks!”
The works include Terrigal High schools Year 7’s prints of designs inspired by the Central Coast landscapes and the Y11’s work focusses on nature, surface treatments of their chosen natural item. Erina High School’s Years 8 to 12 submitted works of landscapes, still life, animation and portrait drawings and paintings, exploring new materials and mixed media. Gail and her Department Head Carol Pennings , endorsed their High School’s participation, and added “we are delighted to be a part of this event again this year, the students have been passionate and keen to take risks and have a go and the more opportunities that our students get to present their work publicly the greater confidence they get!”
Click here to read the Coast Community News article about the exhibitiion.
The 2022 Exhibtion
On view through June 2022, the art works of students from Erina High School and Terrigal High School were on display at the Erina Centre Gallery. The works demonstrated the skills of students across a range of media formats. Click here to read the full story.
LOST PIECES – STREET ART EXHIBITION – SOME HISTORY
For two decades the basketball court wall at Green Point was a highly utilised legal space for graffiti artists to perform, hone and display their aerosol painting and design skills.
The Green Point legal wall began in 2002 as a youth arts project by Gosford City Council youth services. The project aimed to reduce illegal graffiti tagging in the area though the provision of a legal space where graffiti artists could take their time to develop and finesse their skills in aerosol painting to produce large, intricately designed pieces of work without the concern of being arrested for illegal activity.
Green Point legal wall was unique for its longevity and the high quality of the pieces (artworks) that were created there. Graffiti artists travelled from Newcastle and Sydney to join the locals in the opportunity to create pieces legally, and therefore able to take their time to paint works displaying skill, complexity, and talented designs. One local artist known as DYNE, used the Green Point wall and was a key part of establishing the graffiti culture here on the Central Coast. DYNE proceeded to make graffiti art his vocation and became well known for his work in Sydney and throughout the world
The images in the exhibition are a documentation on the use of the legal wall during its existence from 2002 to 2021. They intend to acknowledge the artists that used the space, their amazing skills and creativity, as well as the providence of the local council staff in their commitment to ensuring equitable space for creative expression in public spaces.
In 2021 the area was redeveloped as a larger recreation area, and the legal graffiti wall was demolished.
Central Coast Council’s Graffiti Management Strategy has maintained the inclusion of designated legal graffiti walls in suitable public spaces. Please contact council to find out the locations of these places and spaces: ask@centralcoast.nsw.gov.au or on 1300 463 954
