YOUTHS from the Yarra Ranges have been given an opportunity to express themselves and learn about safe and healthy relationships in a workshop and exhibition program.
Coordinated through Inspiro, formally Ranges Community Health, and Yarra Ranges Council, the YOU&I exhibition is open at Mount Evelyn Exhibition Space and focuses on young people and their relationships.
The exhibition follows a series of workshops led by established media artist Yandell Walton, that taught youth in the Yarra Ranges how to explore and express what makes a healthy relationship.
The youths in the workshops explored these themes through photography and some pieces were featured in the YOU&I exhibition.
Inspiro CEO Karyn McPeake said that the program focused on a significant issue for young people as they grow up – relationships.
“There is strong evidence that violent behaviour is influenced by broader social norms about gender relations and violence against women,” she said.
“This health promotion initiative has helped to shift these perceptions, not only to prevent violence across the population but to also reinforce existing efforts for high-risk populations such as youth.”
Artist in the YOU&I exhibition and Croydon resident Jess Sanbrook said that the themes of healthy relationships were important to learn about.
“To be part of the community, you have to have good relationships,” she said.
“If you don’t have good relationships, it changes the person you are – it shapes you.
“It was good to talk about that with other people and express it in an art form.”
Jess, 20, said that the program was not just centred on unhappy relationships.
“When you talk about relationships, violence does come up,” she said.
“It was more about realising that it happens and building better relationships to prevent that.”
Jess was invited to join the workshops and exhibition after submitting works to other exhibitions in the Yarra Ranges and used her brother and friends as her photographic subjects.
The YOU&I initiative and exhibition was developed in partnership with Yarra Ranges Council, Yarra Valley Community Health, Morrisons and Upper Yarra Secondary College and features numerous artists from Mount Evelyn.
The initiative was selected as a finalist in 2012’s Victorian Health Promotion Foundation Awards in the category of Building Health Through Arts.
The YOU&I Exhibition will close on 4 March and is located at Mount Evelyn Exhibition Space, 50 Wray Crescent.
For more information and to see the artist’s works and progress online, visit www.youandiphotomedia.com.
