Working in partnership – the Rotary Youth Arts Project
The Rotary Youth Arts Project (RYAP) began in 2001 as an initiative of Richmond Rotary in partnership with the City of Yarra. It was an innovative collaboration between sponsors and supporters from the public and private sectors and youth service agencies, working with mentor artists to engage young at-risk people in high profile visual arts programs based at youth service facilities.
A new project was developed in 2005, brokered by the City of Yarra with the support of Richmond Rotary Club and Collingwood Rotary Club. The 2005 and 2006 projects shifted the creative focus from visual arts to physical arts, and brought together Westside Circus, the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) and Dancehouse. In a five-month timeframe, approximately 50 young people took part in workshops across three art forms, and some also participated in well attended public performances and an exhibition. Participants were supported by a youth worker employed by City of Yarra.
In summary, the Rotary Youth Arts Project has run for six years in a variety of forms, and with a variety of outputs, all centred around the theme of engaging young people in community activities based around the arts. In that time, numbers of participants have remained fairly static while the participating agencies and auspice bodies have shifted slightly.
Central to the project has been the on-going participation of the City of Yarra and the Richmond Rotary Club. The project raises a number of questions regarding real partnership and collaboration:
How do we meet the (sometimes) conflicting priorities and needs of the financial and project partners?
How do we find a common ground for planning, roles and responsibilities and communication?
Having undertaken three evaluations using different evaluators for this project, how realistic and worthwhile is evaluation?
These questions will be explored by the speakers, individually and as a panel.
Debby Maziarz completed a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) in Drama and Media Studies in 1994 and a Bachelor of Letters with Honours in Performing Arts in 1997 at Deakin University, Rusden. Debby has worked as a director, teacher, writer, youth worker, performer and arts administrator for the past thirteen years. Debby was an active member of the Women’s Circus from 1991 - 2004, performing in all annual performances. Debby is the founding member and Artistic Director of the Westside Circus, which is a not for profit community arts organisation targeting young people aged between 12 – 25 years. Recent project and directing experience for the Westside Circus includes A Thousand Steps (2006), stellar (Melbourne 2004 Fringe Festival), the albatross (2003 Melbourne Fringe Festival), Poppies (2002 Nextwave Festival), Urban Heroes (2000 Melbourne Fringe Festival) and Taboo (1998 Nextwave Festival). In 1999, Debby participated in a circus-training program in Beijing, CHINA with the Century Performance Company, developing her skills in acro-balance and fire manipulation. Debby received a Queens Trust Achiever Award to undertake a professional development program in 2001-2002 with El Commediants a physical theatre company in Barcelona, SPAIN.