Artistic Practice

Western Edge Youth Arts’ artistic program is shaped by engagement, collaboration and partnering with communities, schools and young people.

Our artistic program is deeply rooted in the following key concerns:

  • Research: Western Edge projects are grounded in research and reflective practice – we believe in the importance of theory and intellectual rigour underpinning all our work
  • Youth voices: We create powerful, relevant community performances with an authentic youth voice. We support young people as they find their voice and re-describe the world they live in
  • Developing emerging leaders: Western Edge supports, mentors and trains culturally and linguistically diverse emerging artists to become cultural leaders in their own communities and beyond through the arts. Our ensemble of leading professional artists collaborates with emerging artists using a process that is grounded in research and formal techniques
  • Artistic Excellence: Together with the young people we work with, we unearth content that is deep and challenging. Our performances are beautiful, engaging and funny, and draw on many art forms. It’s art that walks a line between contemporary performance and accessible, entertaining popular theatre. Artistic excellence that appeals to those who feel excluded from the arts.

Our arts education in action is innovative and poetic, and has the power to transform the artists we engage with and the audiences who see our work.

A poetic pedagogy that is alert to the tension between success and failure, and recognises that it is precisely this tension that leads to innovative and challenging artistic practice. – University of London’s Professor Helen Nicholson describes Western Edge’s practice.