"If the purpose of making art is self-expression, as long as you've expressed yourself, you've succeeded."

Jodi, our Programmes Manager, remembers the room going quiet for a second, because a participant had summed up in one sentence what the team had been circling for weeks.

Responses from everyone

So the first session asked everyone to give their inner critic a face. One participant drew his as a shadow in the corner of his mind, always questioning, "why doesn't my art compare to the ones I see?" Once it had a shape, it became much easier to spot. Others found their way back to art altogether, such as Bryan, who describes that feeling as “freedom”.

The journey wasn’t linear for everyone. Imran was happy with his piece in the studio, but when he saw it beside everyone else's at the showcase, it no longer felt so great. The inner critic he thought he had dealt with came back.

Fellow participant Syltiel comforted him, "hey bro, I think you're so creative, I really like your work.”

That kind of encouragement is what the team wants to keep going once the lab is over, which is why we've scheduled one-on-one check-ins with each youth. Art remains a part of those conversations as a way to talk about their goals. The team will support them in staying engaged, whether that means looking after their wellbeing or finding a path into work or training. For Imran, it starts with his interest in exploring design and photography at school, and where he wants to take it from there.

River of Life installation

The sharing during sessions went deeper than we expected too. Jodi had worried that River of Life, an activity where each person maps their creative journey from childhood to now, would feel too abstract and sensitive. Instead, it brought out some of the richest conversations of the lab.

Theresia's journal entries, at the start of the lab (left) and after the seven sessions (right)

Programme Director Li Ying puts the strength of art simply, "it’s a way for people to talk about themselves without talking about themselves." Theresia echoes it from a participant's perspective: "Creating something that represents what goes on in my mind helps me untangle and process." Veronica, who crocheted a piece depicting the Milky Way, found that "the unknown is not so scary.”

Veronica’s masterpiece

Jodi has used art as a medium to work with communities for years, yet she was still surprised by how quickly the youths took to it. She would love to run the lab again, perhaps as a pop-up at our third space [X], so more people can find out for themselves that being good at art was never the point. In Theresia's words, "after all, life is what you create it to be.”