Step One… Find Someone Who Knows What They’re Doing… Oh Wait, That’s ME: Leading an Art Show for Change
Tracks
Conference Centre Room 1
| Monday, March 28, 2022 |
| 12:08 PM - 12:28 PM |
Overview
Tianna Stevens, Yourtown
Speaker
Ms Tianna Stevens
Youth Participation Assistant
Yourtown
Step One… Find Someone Who Knows What They’re Doing… Oh Wait, That’s ME: Leading an Art Show for Change
Abstract
The terms ‘youth participation’ and ‘co-design’ can be used organisationally to mean that young people have been directly involved in creating an event. Yet often there is real risk of young people being sidelined while the ‘adults’ take over and ‘co-design’ is relegated to a buzzword (Blomkamp, 2018).
The yourtown LGBTQI+ Our Pride Youth Advisory Group recently held an art show, ‘Your Pride’ as part of the 2021 Brisbane Pride Festival and Bris Fest. The art show set out to create a meaningful space for diverse young voices and the community to come together in a joyful celebration of LGBTQIA+ life. This is an excellent example of what can be achieved when we use a model of participation wherein young people are trusted and given space to create, develop, and run an activity in its entirety. Further, it highlights positive organisational outcomes such as building trust between traditionally marginalised communities and services that can help them overcome disadvantages, as well as the deeper satisfaction felt by young people when they are trusted to achieve rather than expected to fail. When participation is democratised and Lived Experience is treated as expertise in co-design and development, young people are able to create connections and spaces free from deficit perspectives that restore their self-confidence and mental wellbeing.
This will be presented by Tianna Sevens, Youth Participation Assistant at yourtown (supported by the Youth Participation Coordinator), who was most involved in creating this art show. Through the presentation, we will discover how the art show became an opportunity for genuine empowerment for young people, the organisation, and the community, and how sharing success has far-reaching positive outcomes for all.
3 x Key Learnings:
1. Spaces created by young people, for young people, are responded to by both the young people and the broader community with positivity.
2. Creating a space for diverse voices to be uplifted, involving those same diverse voices in the process of creating the space, results in genuine expressions of inclusivity.
3. If you look at young people for their strengths, rather than their ‘weaknesses’ you will find their ‘weaknesses’ do not ‘mess-up’ the end goal.
The yourtown LGBTQI+ Our Pride Youth Advisory Group recently held an art show, ‘Your Pride’ as part of the 2021 Brisbane Pride Festival and Bris Fest. The art show set out to create a meaningful space for diverse young voices and the community to come together in a joyful celebration of LGBTQIA+ life. This is an excellent example of what can be achieved when we use a model of participation wherein young people are trusted and given space to create, develop, and run an activity in its entirety. Further, it highlights positive organisational outcomes such as building trust between traditionally marginalised communities and services that can help them overcome disadvantages, as well as the deeper satisfaction felt by young people when they are trusted to achieve rather than expected to fail. When participation is democratised and Lived Experience is treated as expertise in co-design and development, young people are able to create connections and spaces free from deficit perspectives that restore their self-confidence and mental wellbeing.
This will be presented by Tianna Sevens, Youth Participation Assistant at yourtown (supported by the Youth Participation Coordinator), who was most involved in creating this art show. Through the presentation, we will discover how the art show became an opportunity for genuine empowerment for young people, the organisation, and the community, and how sharing success has far-reaching positive outcomes for all.
3 x Key Learnings:
1. Spaces created by young people, for young people, are responded to by both the young people and the broader community with positivity.
2. Creating a space for diverse voices to be uplifted, involving those same diverse voices in the process of creating the space, results in genuine expressions of inclusivity.
3. If you look at young people for their strengths, rather than their ‘weaknesses’ you will find their ‘weaknesses’ do not ‘mess-up’ the end goal.
Biography
Tianna is a young, genderqueer person working as the Youth Participation Assistant at yourtown, and who worked directly on ensuring co-design of the artshow. As a recent graduate from UQ, with a BA in Digital and Media Culture and Ancient/Modern History, achieving 3 Dean’s Commendations. They have been involved in Youth Participation as a Youth Advisor in the past, doing interviews with the Courier Mail, speaking on panels about gender identity and mental health, as well as working on educational social media posts on gender identity and sexuality. Tianna hopes to use their passion for research and academia to improve the lives of other young people.
