As part of Viva la Gong, CREATE is a week long program of activities, forums and exhibitions on this week for young people aged 12 -24 years.

CREATE kicks off today and will run until 6 November. The festival is a new event organised by Wollongong City Council’s Youth Services to promote and support young people in the arts.

Manager of Community, Cultural and Library Services, Jenny Thompson, said CREATE festival is a fantastic initiative to help young people grow and develop in the arts and culture scene.

“The week includes a full afternoon program of exhibitions and workshops about the arts, music and spoken word, as well as other public forms of art including zines and acrobatic circus performances,” said Jenny Thompson.

On Tuesday, 2 November from 3.30pm young people can join the Youth Centre Artist in Residence for 1.5 hour workshop at Wollongong Youth Centre to check out zines and other forms of art across the city.

If it’s more acrobatic things you’re into, circus workshops in a variety of art forms are on at the Youth Centre on Wednesday, 3 November from 3.30-5pm.

For debate and discussion, come along to the Wollongong Youth Centre on Thursday, 4 November, 5-7.30pm, to an interactive forum exploring what young people think about arts and culture.

On Friday, 5 November from 3-5pm you can get creative yourself and create your own ‘zine’ – a workshop-led session to teach you how to collate images and text about CREATE week.

If you fancy yourself more of a critic, at 3.30pm on Friday you can tour through the various art installations being exhibited during CREATE.

We look forward to seeing you there! For more information call 4226 5969 or visit www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/YouthServices