Last week I was involved in my first large scale government event. Under direction from the head of community relations, myself and a graduate student employed by the P.T.A. played a large part in organising this event. It was really interesting to see the event being built from the ground up, and exciting to feel we were contributing to something relevant to local communities. The idea of this function was to give youth a voice regarding the issue of graffiti in Perth. The P.T.A. faces up to $24 million dollars worth of clean up fees each year in this area. In conjunction with a youth group by the name of Millennium Kids, we created a forum style event where youth could contribute their ideas on the difference between graffiti and urban art, whilst also suggesting ways improvements can be made. We also organised a range of workshop for the teens involved, ranging from urban art creation to featuring on local television. Something that was very exciting for me was the involvement of Stormie Mills, a very highly respected urban artist who lives in Perth (His wife owns Magenta, a fashion PR firm).
On the day it was slightly stressful, but everything ran as we hoped. I helped in setting up the event prior to guest arrival, signing in kids and adults, etc. I booked the caterer and organised a coffee van prior to the day, luckily all of this went smoothly. We also invited alot of important government figures to attend so liaising with them was interesting. My main job for the day was assisting the photographer by grouping teens for pictures, as well as speaking to them and getting names and possible quotes for media releases. There was a really broad spectrum of youth there, with three very well known graffiti vandals attending. It was intriguing to hear how they felt about this topic.
This week we will have all the pictures back, so I will be writing media releases for several local community papers, as well as internal P.T.A. publications.
I am loving my time here and will probably stay on longer than the twenty days!
2 comments:
hey thats sounds really interesting. I have a mate who is right into graffitti art and one major thing he complains about is the lack of acceptance for it as an art and the lack of space to express it is an art. Is this at all what the kids you talked to have to say?! Was it just teenagers or was it older people as well?! and how did you go about getting the kids to turn up for the event? was it difficult? it sounds like an absolutely fantastic placement would you consider this a place to try and get a job when the prac finishes? Good luck for the rest!!
Hi Indi,
Thanks for your comments; you're right- it is a great placement so far :) The PTA has a grad program but unfortunately they are not looking for any communications people this year as they hired two grads last year. I have made some great contacts though and have two excellent references for my resume now!
The event was about 100 teenagers and lots of government officials, some teachers and us. We organised the teens involved via contact with local schools. They said exactly what your friend saind in regards to space. My friend who is also an amazing urban artist has said the same hting as well. We are now working towards creating more spaces for youth ot be able to showcase this art form legally. Currently there is a skate park in Mandurah and one in Willeton where they can basically do as they wish, but that is about it.
We are now organising a project with Stormie which will again involve young artists, this time painting two large spaces in Rockingham. Should be interesting.
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