culture.gov.au

Connecting you with Australian culture online

Youth portals

Media-based sites | State and regional-based sites | National and peak resource sites

Media-based sites

Interact street art. Courtesy of A Place to Think.

• JJJ - Australia's youth radio station
  Download news, podcasts, MP3s, interviews of bands and musicians, and a gig guide for upcoming tours.
  
  
• JJJ Unearthed
  Listen to new, fresh, emerging Australian music on-site and also contribute your own stuff.
  
  
• Australian Theatre for Young People
  A Sydney-based theatre company site devoted exclusively to young people to deliver services through collaboration from Parramatta to the Pilbara.
  
  
• Backbone Youth Arts
  Provides exciting and innovative theatre workshop program for children and youth, the PLAY GROUP theatre discussion group and productions.
  
  
• Contact Inc.
  A dynamic cultural development organisation, working across Brisbane's South West Corridor, Sunnybank and surrounding suburbs to create a space where cultures can safely and meaningfully meet.
  
  
• Electrofringe
  A hands-on, all-in, new media arts festival site exploring sound, video, gaming, audio-visual integrations, screen and hypertext.
  
  
• ICE - Information + Cultural Exchange
  A community, cultural, information technology and arts organisation that develops new media, information and communications technology, and community cultural development in the Western Sydney area.
  
  
• National Institute for Youth Performing Arts Australia
  Has a reputation for performing arts education, through the programs offered by the Australian Youth Choir and The National Youth Dance Theatre, which provide an enjoyable and educationally sound artistic experience for young people of school age.
  
  
• National Young Writers' Festival
  Australia's premier event for emerging writers, publishers and performers when several thousand of the country's most challenging and original young minds descend upon Newcastle for a five-day creative bender. Site features artists, resources and news.
  
  
• Noise
  Media-based arts festival site showcasing the creative work of young Australians.
  

STEPS Youth Dance Theatre. Courtesy of STEPS Youth Dance Company.

• The Pure Drop
  An interactive online program that explores the worlds of indie, traditional folk and world music. It traces the Australian folk tradition back to its roots in Europe and the Middle East.
  
  
• Sound Summit
  A site promoting the annual conference in Newcastle for indie artists, labels and people interested in working in electronica and hip hop. Site includes artists and session details.
  
  
• STEPS Youth Dance Company
  STEPS Youth Dance Theatre. Courtesy of STEPS Youth Dance Company.
  A vibrant and energetic dance company for young people based in Perth, which builds working partnerships between young dancers and arts professionals, both company-based and independent, with a calendar, events and projects on-site.
  
  
• TINA (This Is Not Art)
  Australia's premier independent, emerging and experimental art festival site, the umbrella for four seperate national media and digital arts festivals held annually in Newcastle, NSW: The National Young Writers Festival, Electrofringe, The National Student Media Conference and The Sound Summit.
  
  
• Voiceworks
  Voiceworks is a national, quarterly magazine that features exciting new writing by Australian young writers. It is an opportunity for young writers and artists (under 25) to publish their poetry, short stories, articles and comics, illustrations, drawings and photos.
  
  
• Youth@craft·design
  A site for young and emerging craftspeople, students, professional makers and designers to interact with some of Australia's most successful emerging craft and design practitioners. Join the youth@craft·design bloggers and learn how they made a successful transition into the commercial world, as well as use resources and view the gallery.

State and regional-based sites

Carclew Youth Arts. Courtesy of Carclew Youth Arts.

• Carclew Youth Arts
  Carclew Youth Arts covers the broad spectrum of youth arts for children and young people from urban centres, and sometimes isolated areas of South Australia. The site includes contemporary music, Indigenous, industry and digital media initiatives. Carclew is the program arm of the South Australian Youth Arts Board.
  
  
• FReeZA
  A site that showcases artists and events in Victoria, supported by the Freeza program, which provides funding to local government and community organisations to run local drug-, smoke- and alcohol-free music and cultural events for people aged 12 to 25.
  
  
• Propelarts
  As Western Australia's peak youth arts body site, Propelarts offers networking forums, YCulture project funding and skills development, Art Yolk skills development and free fortnightly E-zine, SHINE. It also covers Indigenous youth arts leadership, OUT THERE regional youth arts residencies and offers general support, information and advocacy for the youth arts sector.
  
  
• Wyndham City Youth Services
  Wyndham City Youth Services provides information, programs, events and assistance for young people aged 5 to 25 years of age in Wyndham, Victoria.
  
  
• YAQ
  Youth Arts Queensland is an organisational site involved in strengthening youth arts and cultural development. It offers the Young Artists Mentoring Program (YAMP) and SPARK, a national mentoring program supporting artists from contemporary dance, visual arts and curating, theatre creation and design, directing, writing, performing, choreography, puppetry and new media among others.
  

National and peak resource sites

Dust on my Shoes. Courtesy of Dust on my Shoes.

• A Place to Think - Interact Street Art
  View a gallery of street art from Sydney and Melbourne, and add your own art to the gallery. Read interviews with street artists, including Mini Graff, Vexta and Ha Ha who discuss their style, recent projects and what inspires them.
  
  
• Dust on my Shoes
  A broadband project designed for youth that explores global rough travel through a wide range of media. It follows the trail of author and wild adventurer, Peter Pinney, who travelled through the Far East and Asia in the late 1940s and examines the changes that have taken place since.
  
  
• Fuel4arts
  Provides practical information and advice to arts professionals, including research, arts marketing case studies and articles, trend reports and an up-to-date database of industry contacts. It offers members free access to an international community of artists and arts professionals. It is an initative of the Australia Council for the Arts.
  
  
• National Youth Week
  NYW is Australia's largest celebration of young people. Young people are supported to organise events such as sporting activities, dance parties, exhibitions, festivals, forums and live performances.
  
  
• The Program
  This is about connections between young people and the arts community. You can put up your own stories, post events you're involved in, review what you've seen lately and comment on stories or artistic incidents.
  
  
• the source
  This is an Australian Government website for young people wanting to find information about youth initiatives, services, events and entertainment.
  
  
• Young People and the Arts Policy (Australia Council)
  This site is committed to supporting, encouraging and promoting creative practices by, for and with young people and children. The site offers resources, news and links.
  
  
• Young People and the Arts Australia
  YPAA is the Australian professional association representing and promoting arts organisations and artists whose work focuses primarily on engaging children and young people in the arts.