The newly renamed Douglas Youth Arts Centre is fulfilling its promise to bring new and innovative arts courses to young people, starting with stencil art workshops. Run by Sue George, sessions will take place weekly from Tuesday 18th January (4pm) at a cost of ?1. Participants will produce art stencils in the street art tradition and develop their own stencil designs for inclusion in an exhibition to be staged at the centre, in Kensington Road. Activities will include printing and cutting of stencils including both single-use and multiple-use stencils. Participants will also practice manipulating digital images as the basis for stencil designs. Sue George is an artist and art teacher who has provided stencil art workshops in her native Australia and in Korea and Vietnam. Inspired by the street art tradition in Melbourne, Sue has been producing stencil art prints for the past four years and has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions. Fiona Helleur, Head of Youth Arts with the Department of Education and Children, said: ‘Street art is one of the most exciting mediums for self expression in art and we are planning a whole series of events based around stencils. ‘Sue is an admirer of Banksy, the internationally renowned street artist, and has developed her own skills to include this anarchic media. There is a example of Sue’s stencil art on the wall of the Soundcheck studios at the arts centre; she took a photograph of a member of a Soundcheck band, enlarged it to A1 size and then painstakingly cut out the stencil, which she then spray painted directly onto the wall, where it is much admired and commented upon.’ The workshops will be suitable for beginners at art as well as art students interested in diversifying the work within their portfolios. Sessions are restricted to young people aged 14 and over as sharp knives and high velocity spray paints are used. For further information, please contact Fiona Helleur on 07624 437339 or email f.helleur@doe.sch.im Ends