Opportunities for Emerging Creative Talent

Subvert Youth Festival to Create Opportunities for Emerging Creative Talent

Subvert – Young, Creative, Ambitious. Youth Media Festival, July – September 2003.

Natasha Cantwell

Upcoming youth media festival ‘Subvert will provide young aspiring artists, musicians, filmmakers and designers with the opportunity to have their creative work profiled, promoted and exhibited nationwide in September 2003.

The aim of Subvert is to get more young people using and developing their creative talents with a view to building creative portfolios, ultimately launching careers and boosting New Zealand’s growing creative industries, Ralph Walker, Project Manager of Subvert says.

“When looking for opportunities to show or publish their work, young people often don’t know where to begin, or have the confidence to do so,” Ralph Walker says.

“New Zealand is full of really talented creative people, but too many of them don’t push to get their work published or exhibited. They just don’t think they’re good enough and there’s nobody telling them they’re wrong about that.”

Louise Clifton

Over the next few months, young people will be able to enter work for a number of creative projects. The best work submitted for each project will be selected and promoted using mass media during the festival month of September.

There are ten different creative projects each with a media sponsor and a guarantee of nationwide exposure. The projects cover a wide range of creative fields from music and film to art and design.

Alison Kreft

This makes Subvert a significant opportunity for emerging talent from a range of creative fields. The projects also cater for different levels of skill and experience, Mr Walker says.

All New Zealanders aged 12 – 25 can enter their creative work for the festival.

Subvert has the support of some of New Zealand’s largest and most established media organisations. Space TV, Tearaway magazine, The ZM network, Stagecoach, Radio New Zealand, Huffer and others have donated their valuable media space to profile and promote the young creative work.

This exposure is an invaluable and often hard to come by opportunity for young people in creative fields.

“It’s really hard when you first start trying to get your work out there – and you get stage-fright. But you’ve got to find the opportunities – the hardest time is the first time – but it’s really important,” Wellington based artist Arlo Edwards says.

By creating opportunities for emerging talent, Subvert also has the potential to boost New Zealand’s creative industries.

“Subvert is a brilliant idea because, if we are to prosper as a nation through innovation and creativity, then it s vital that we unlock the creative energy of our enormously talented young people,” Chairman of Creative New Zealand Peter Biggs says.

Subvert is an initiative of Ydub – a sub-brand of the YWCA of Aotearoa New Zealand focussed specifically on young people.

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