Supported by a Community Grant from Gandel Foundation, Geelong Gallery’s Youth Ambassador Program is a specialised training program for 11 young people (16-25 years) from diverse backgrounds, which ran in conjunction with the National Gallery of Australia’s touring exhibition – Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series (March – May 2019).
This program aims to connect and empower young people living in the community through engagement in the arts, training and well-being activities.
The Youth Ambassador Program provided training, work-experience, short-term casual employment, mentoring, arts workshops and art creation over a 12-week period, with young people participating from Northern Futures, Diversitat, Northern Bay College and Belmont High School. The Youth Ambassadors gained valuable learning experiences and an understanding of arts industry knowledge and professional development and build upon self-confidence and leadership skills.
“Working as a Youth Ambassador for the Gallery is a good experience to learn about how much work goes in to putting the art on the walls, it’s more complicated than you might think, I’m learning a lot of skills, that I will be able to use later on in my career.” (Katrina, 19, Student, Northern Futures)
“I’m Congolese by origin, but I was born in Tanzania. Because I’ve only been in Australia for 7 months now, being in this program has helped me in public speaking and helped me connecting with people.” (James, 21, Student, The Gordon)