The Voice of Youth (Guth na Hóige) project is developed by Shane O’Malley Artist & Marcus O’Connor – West Murals and addresses place-based issues of youth and community development. The project covers the thematic strand of activating communities.
The project uses art as a medium to highlight changes young people feel are needed to create a better future from their perspective and gives the youth a platform to verbalise their perspective to their community and a platform to be expressive and question elements of their world through a creative lens. The Voice of Youth (Guth na Hóige) uses mural art and street art as a medium to improve the quality of public spaces and the lives of the people who will experience the finished mural. The murals theme will come from workshops with the youth group and will aim to give a voice to young people, create a sense of place and build community through creative collaboration.
During the workshops, a number of core questions that the group wants to explore will be developed. They will then be used to help establish a narrative for a future final large scale mural.
As for its potential transformative effect, this project will help youth in the community explore their voice and empower them to stand up and be heard. The final mural will transform the visual landscape of the area that currently has little to no murals and street art. This is expected to have a positive effect for the wider community as they will have access to public art and a sense of ownership of the mural which was developed from members of their community.
The innovation potential of the project lies in the use of mural art to convey the voice of the youth, using colour, form and symbols applied at a large scale to create maximum impact, as well as in its participatory practices.
Contact
Marcus O’Connor
