Youth Mural Project In Melbournes Hobsons Bay

Newport Community Hub Mural

Designed and Painted With the Youth of Hobsons Bay

In the Newport Community Hub there’s a room for youth orientated projects, events and meet ups and Hobsons Bay Council wanted to bring this space to life not only with a mural but one that told the direct story of those young people that frequent the space and the environment.

To begin this process I linked up with 5 young people where we gathered in the space to have a talk about the things that they gravitated towards and with paper versions of the wall we drew our concepts. With so many ideas I ended up meshing all of these together in a colourful mash up to tell their story and the story of what surrounded them.

We came up with: pelican, music, inclusivity, graffiti, skateboarding, surfing, rollerblading, the beach, local flowers, the sun, LGBTQIA+ acceptance, indigenous representation, painting, drawing, peace and love.

Sprawling these designs over my studio table I began the process of meshing them all together in a conceptually pleasing manor easy enough for the young people to paint themselves while being complicated enough to stand the test of time as a refined public art piece.

I then sketched the wiring of the mural up and the young people came in for the biggest colouring in of their lives! Here’s how it went.

Interactive Mural Painting With The Youth

After a three day program painting with the youth I came in to clean everything up and add spray paint fades throughout the work to bring it all to life. After the fades I got stuck into the line work carefully painting to bring everything together.

By the end the young people where stoked with the outcome and really felt like it wasn’t just a program that they where a part of rather but one that they also made happen. It’s important with these interactive projects to make sure the young people feel heard, understood and have a feeling of ownership while also guiding it in a direction that will lead to a nice mural for the other visitors within the space. This project definitely accomplished that, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.