Creating Communities: Social Inclusion and Entrepreneurship through Young People’s Arts and Media Practices

Bloustien G¹*

1. University of South Australia, Magill, South Australia, Australia

Drawing on Making Tracks, an innovative research project studying young people’s arts and media practices, this paper documents the interplay between young people, arts programs and government polices. It particularly focuses upon some of the technical and performative skills, personal and community resources young people draw upon in their everyday arts practices and through which they establish meaningful cultural identities, employment pathways and socio-economic inclusion. In creating a ‘whole of systems’ approach, the research team recognises that there are three crucial components to understanding the significance of young people’s arts and media practices, namely a) that there are already high levels of voluntary and spontaneous engagement with the Arts among young people, particularly in the areas of music and new technologies; b) that there are a wide range of arts education programs currently operating or planned through educational and arts bodies; c) that social policies at the state and federal level deliberately and/or inadvertently shape the nature and structure of arts educational programs. An examination of the dynamics and interplay between these three factors is the integral focus of the project:

In this paper, I narrow my analytical lens to particular focus upon the ways in which several youth–focussed Arts projects, have developed and flourished in Adelaide and regional South Australia. I outline the motivation, skills and strategies which the young people involved and their mentors deploy to create and market highly successful ‘grass-roots’ businesses often in the face of continual economic, political and bureaucratic obstacles.