La Luna Youth Arts Association is a community based, not-for-profit youth arts organisation, which has been serving young people in the Townsville and Thuringowa area since its inception as the youth arm of the New Moon Theatre company in the mid-eighties. After the demise of its parent company, La Luna Youth Arts continued to thrive and became an incorporated association in 1991.

 

La Luna Youth Arts has continued to grow steadily throughout its years of operation and now offers workshops and projects to young people aged 3 - 30 through its five creative arts disciplines; art, dance, drama, circus and film. We average 300-400 members every year but work with in excess of 7,000 children and young people a year through our regular membership program, outreach and festival work.

 

The company addresses the burgeoning community demand for tailored arts access programs from range of organisations and agencies including; the Cleveland Detention Centre, community urban renewal projects, School–of-the-Air, Lifeline Community Care North Queensland and Youth Justice, to name a few.

 

Fun Facts

·         La Luna means ‘the moon’ in Italian but no one in the company (at the    moment) is of Italian heritage.

·    The name came our original parent company; New Moon Theatre Company.

·         Former La Luna Youth Arts company members have gone on to further arts study at a range of colleges including; The National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), The Queensland University of Technology (QUT), The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and Griffith University.

·         La Luna Youth Arts and its staff have won over a dozen local and state awards for theatre, dance, media/film and multimedia cultural contributions.

 

Mission

·         offer a wide range of creative opportunities to young people in Townsville and NQ;

·         produce new works which express young people’s understanding of and responses to the world they live in via processes that empower young people’s use of the arts to shape their culture;

·         advocate the importance of young people’s cultural contribution;

·         foster an audience for young people’s cultural work;

·         develop its position as a major service provider of youth arts activity in North Queensland.

 

Structure

·         Incorporated in 1991 and is run by a Management Committee appointed annually by members.

·         Regularly receives funding from all three tiers of government.

·         Staffed by professionally trained and industry experienced personnel.

·         Currently employs 4 full-time and two part-time staff members as well as over a dozen casual tutors, artists and arts workers.

 

We sustain because we believe in …

 

Growing with the Arts!