Teen mural project

Funded by the National Library of New Zealand, the Teen Mural Project has provided a great opportunity to focus on community engagement. The Te Awamutu Library acknowledges how creativity can enhance a space and inspire people. The mural is intended to enhance reading for pleasure, and inspire community wellbeing.

Local artist Teresa Siemonek (seasoned painter and art tutor), along with a group of ten pre-teens and teens, have created a large canvas artwork with the theme of ‘Celebrating reading’ or ‘Dreams inspired by reading’. The images used in the design show their thoughts on where reading can take you and what dreams can be achieved.

The Rosebank Art Centre provided a wonderful relaxed environment for our young artists to collaborate on the project during several after-school and weekend sessions. The participating group included students from several local schools, as well as a home-schooled student, ranging in age from 11 to 17.

Each participant was encouraged to complete an individual poster on the theme, to be displayed alongside the mural. They also had input into the ideas to be used in the design, and contributed to the painting of the canvas itself. Many of the concepts from the individual posters can also be seen in the finished mural design.

The completed canvas was sent to Alexandra Images, where it was photographed and digitally transformed into the vinyl wrap now installed on the wall in the library’s teen area. The mural is lit by both the internal building lights and the natural external light coming from the large windows. We hope library visitors and the community of the Waipa District will experience colourful reflective inspirations while browsing the library shelves.