Art a life-line to a new life in Albany
Sue Codee, the coordinator of the youth arts centre Open Access in the West Australian town of Albany said she received an email recently from a young person saying that if it wasn’t for the opportunities she’d been given at Open Access ‘she probably wouldn’t be here today’.
Codee says the national perception that the west’s mining boom has made the entire state rich is quite wrong. “Money from the mining boom has trickled through to only some parts of WA. Albany has a population of around 35,000 with a lot of people at the lower end of the socio-economic scale. Teenagers here, like anywhere, struggle with their emotions and their peers and unfortunately there is a suicidal tendency these days. We have about 38 young people on our books, aged from 13 to 26 and they come to us via referrals from youth workers, doctors, or they self-refer.” Codee says everyone must have an interest in art, but she is very keen to make clear that the centre does not offer art therapy. “The way we work is to inspire the students to develop what they are good at. Along the way they pick up real skills. We employ local established artists to work with them and do some really exciting work such as the Shoe Show exhibition last year (see photo). That involved people right through Albany including the local schools. Our students from Open Access made works and also helped curate and stage the exhibition, learning really useful event management skills along the way.”
Codee says the story of 16 year old Kaitlin shows how Open Access can be a lifeline. “She was very low when she came here more than a year ago but had a real talent as a visual artist and writer. Kaitlin is now on several state arts committees including Y Culture, the youth arts funding body in Country Arts WA.”
Recently, Albany Council approved a large stencilling visual arts project that will take place in prominent local alleys.
