Alex is a Year 12 student at South Grafton High School, who has already established a reputation for himself as a young musician, with a regular gig at Georgie’s Restaurant in Grafton every Friday. Alex dreams of being a filmmaker and is prolific in his experimentation in this area. His work so far has included promotional videos and television commercials for local bands and businesses, documentary work, recording of live performance, and creative videos.

Mentored by Carli Leimbach

Over recent years Clare has made a name for herself as a young writer and poet, with a run of competition successes, including; Winner, Northern Star Newspaper ‘Best Story Competition’ (2005); Finalist, Sydney Morning Herald ‘Young Writer of the Year’ (2007); Winner, Southern Cross University ‘Best Essay Award’ (2008); and Runner up, Bayside Literary Festival ‘Passion for Prose’ Literary Award (2009), amongst others. Clare hopes to further develop and hone her skills in creative and journalistic writing, to foster her own passion in the field, and so she can learn to use writing as a means to help those who cannot help themselves. She is currently studying Social Science at university.

Mentored by Martin Chatterton

Danika is currently studying year 12 at Alstonville High School. She has been a keen singer since an early age and at the age of eight, undertook her first piano lessons. At the beginning of the second semester in 2010, Danika began getting guitar lessons. She did music as a school elective in year 9/10 and also in year 11/12. Danika currently jams with her friends and family, and soon hopes to get her busking license in Lismore. She hopes to travel on exchange for a year in 2012, and on her return, become enrolled in the SCU music course.

Mentored by Karen Hanna

Eliza is a student at Xavier Catholic College, Ballina. She trained classically as a pianist for eight years and began has regular singing lessons. Eliza learnt how much she loved performing in a Ballina Players production of ‘High School Musical’. This inspired her to give her first solo performance in 2007, at school. From then on, she has been performing at every opportunity and would like to work towards performing a full gig. Her long-term goal is to have a career in music, composing, recording and performing her original songs.

Mentored by Scarlett Affection

Jack has been messing round with music his whole life, and feels that music is what has shaped him into the person he is today. His interest is in becoming a DJ and music producer. He is also a circus teacher, fire twirling instructor and NORPA Youth Ambassador. He currently teaches circus skills to other young people on a weekly basis.

Mentored by Randolf Reimann

Jacob is a 17 year old student at St John’s College, Woodlawn. He works through the post-modern frame and loves to create installation pieces, the most recent being an indoor, walk-through simulated storm, leading to a multi-media room with hanging foil sculptures. The work was created for his half yearly preliminary HSC assessment and was focused on our impact on the environment, and ways to prevent further global warming. Jacob is very interested to work with a group to create a public work to celebrate and unite the community through unusual methods, multi-media and post-modern techniques.

Mentored by Karena Wynn-Moylan

Jaz is a young fashion designer, model and president of Nimbin Fashion Australia, a new organisation which aims to support the professional growth of local designers, create opportunities for them to achieve recognition for their creativity, and gain access to a market hungry for unique and quality creations. Jaz is currently designing her first solo collection for a fashion extravaganza to be held in Byron Bay in August. Her goal is to be creating wearable art, art directing and producing fashion events as a career path.

Mentored by Wendy Powitt

For the past five years Marcus has been working with aerosol street art. He has had a gallery showing, done freelance work, had several commissions and mentored other young street artists. He would like to encourage more public art spaces, start workshops and increase societal awareness of this contemporary art form.

Mentored by Emma Harrison

Mel has recently completed a visual arts degree at Southern Cross University in Lismore, majoring in sculpture. Over the last three years she has exhibited at the Byron Bay Writers Festival and various local exhibitions. In 2010 she volunteered with the Byron Bay Artscape Biennial where she worked with both international and national artists on the preparation and installation of works for the event. Her goal is to develop a professional practice in visual arts focusing on public sculpture.

Mentored by John Dahlsen

Over the last three years Olivia has completed a number of courses though Byron Youth Services, in order to build the knowledge and confidence required to pursue a career in the fashion industry. Her dream is to create beautiful environmentally friendly accessories using recycled and natural products, and eventually to expand her products into a homewares range.

Co-mentored by Anne Leon and Potts

Ria’s work often sits between social documentary and constructed art photography. She has a passion for portraiture and recently environmental portraiture, in which she explores relationships between people and their environment. Ria has taken part in several exhibitions in Brisbane, including shows at the Queensland Centre for Photography (2010, 2007) and was also part of the Queensland Festival of Photography in 2010. Her long-term goals are to have a published collection of photographs and have ongoing documentary projects with both Australian rural communities and abroad.

Co-mentored by Bernadette Curtin and Fran Flynn

Ruby is a Year 11 student at Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School. She has been dancing since she was three years old, loves performing and expressing ideas and feelings through the form of dance. Ruby has been a part of dance productions such as ‘Peter and the Wolf’ and an interpretation of ‘Swan Lake’. She has attended many different dance workshops with experienced dance professionals such as Lisa Bolte and Janece Graham. She has recently discovered contemporary dance in the past few years and have found a real love for it. She is trained in the forms of ballet, jazz and tap, and has dabbled in hip-hop, funk jazz, cabaret, and partner dancing pas de deux.

Mentored by Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal