HARMONY ART COLLECTIVE

Contemporary artist Bradley Eastman (aka Beastman), prolific stenciller Regan Tamanui (aka Haha), pop art and mash-up artist Ben Frost, and criminal lawyer turned urban art-maker Kaff-eine were selected as the projects’ four art ambassadors.

Together with collaborators Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), the Department of Social Services (DSS) and aMBUSH Gallery, they traversed Australia on an artistic journey underpinned by positivity, unity and understanding. This innovative national art project is an initiative of Harmony Day 2017, which celebrates cultural diversity and spreads the message that everyone belongs.

The Harmony Art Collective involved a series of eight workshops with young Australians aged 15-24 years, many of whom are newly arrived migrants, allowing them to explore vital themes of individuality and belonging through the creation of collaborative artworks. The aims were to foster social participation, cultural pride, independence, self-esteem, and community connectedness and provides the impetus for timely and long overdue discussions in our society centred around the diverse experiences of young migrants, who now proudly call Australia home.

At an important juncture in their lives, the contributors were able to create artworks reinforced by their own narratives and expressed a sense of belonging to their new country through the project. The workshops were conducted in local community centres in Darwin (NT), Hume (VIC), West Croydon (SA), Inala (QLD), Bankstown (NSW), Wollongong (NSW), Hobart (TAS), and during the Garma Festival in August 2016 (NT).

The exhibition ran from 15 March – 30 April 2017 at Darling Quarter’s outdoor exhibition space, OPEN.

More info here

Photos and video by Billy Zammit