The city’s creative future is on display at the Art Gallery of Ballarat with the best work of the region’s young artists on display.
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For the past 24 years the gallery has run the Next Gen exhibition showcasing the best work from the Ballarat region’s VCE art and design students, and on Thursday the finishing touches were being put on the latest installation of 50 inspiring works from 44 young artists who graduated from secondary school last year.
Former Ballarat Clarendon College student Jasmine Fitzpatrick used travel and exploration as inspiration for her eye-catching paper dress and two etchings created as part of VCE studies.
“I’ve explored the idea of exploring new places and using maps to get to new destinations, which I have incorporated in to my garment and etches,” she said.
“I was really fascinated with paper because it’s not very practical for a garment but I thought I’d give it a go – it doesn’t have to be something you can actually wear in real life.”
She hopes the Next Gen exhibition is another step in to a future in art, with Jasmine about to start a visual communications degree at Swinburne. Fellow exhibitor Ruby Hyatt is also about to start pursuing her career in the arts world, studying contemporary visual arts at Federation University while her reflective artwork is on display in Next Gen.
“My focus for the year was on fear and how as a society we push it out of the way, even though everyone is afraid of something. Mirrors and bottles represent how we bottle up emotion and how it reflects back on us. I used pictures of friends and family being afraid to create a personal connection to myself and to them.”
Her installation is placed at eye level so viewers are forced to look in to the work.
Gallery education officer Kate Gorman said it was an “incredibly important” role of the gallery to support young people and young creatives.
“We have extensive education program support students from pre-school all the way through to VCE and beyond – Next Gen is a culmination of those efforts across those years of student education.”
VCE Next Gen opens on Saturday at the Art Gallery of Ballarat and runs until May.
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