Kapunda Community Gallery Exhibition

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (15:27): Today I would like to talk about the power of art to enhance our communities. Last week I had the good fortune of attending the Kapunda Community Gallery opening of a special exhibition focusing on young people's creativity. The exhibition showcased the work of students from Kapunda Kindergarten, Kapunda High School, Trinity College Gawler River Campus, Greenock Primary School and winning entries from the Kapunda Show youth section. Alice Tilley, gallery committee member and coordinator of exhibits said:

The inaugural annual Young People's Creative Industries exhibition showcases the talents of young artists aged from 12 to 24 from Kapunda and beyond. The exhibition is complemented by art from the Greenock Primary School and Kapunda Kindergarten students, as well as the winning youth entries at the recent Kapunda Show.

The opening exhibition attracted many young artists, their families and friends, and members of the community gallery.

The region has many young, talented artists, so I congratulate the community gallery on this very special exhibition. It is clear that the artwork enables the young artists to express themselves in a way that sometimes words cannot.

The work by young Kapunda artist Aida Bryley, titled White Noise—which portrays her experience of leaving Mawson Lakes and moving to the local town of Kapunda, having to start a new school and make new friends—shows the way that art can actually help her communicate her experience. I thought it was a very emotional piece. As a community we sometimes underestimate the power of art to help people, in particular young people, to communicate.

The artwork of over 50 young artists is on display, and some of the young people have a real flair for it. The gallery is open daily and the exhibition closes on 1 December 2024. More information can be found on the Kapunda community gallery website.

I also had the good fortune of attending the Trinity College Gawler graduate exhibition. This exhibition highlights and showcases the work—arts, film and a whole range of other media—of students who are doing year 12 and are graduating from the college. The exhibition was held in the Trinity Innovation and Creativity School and attracted many guests. It was interesting to note that there was a whole range of artworks, from the traditional paintings and visual arts to other forms and media. Trinity College is doing a very good job in supporting the arts in the Gawler area.

The other thing I would like to bring to the attention of the chamber is that there are a number of people in our community who have caring responsibilities. These carers can be as young as five or six to much older, and often have to make huge sacrifices in terms of caring for others. It is good to have organisations like Carers and Disability Link in our community who support the carers in the work they do.

Carers and Disability Link had another successful year of supporting carers in the community from the Adelaide Hills to the Barossa, Yorke Peninsula and the Clare Valley. I was fortunate enough to attend their AGM recently to hear all about their good work.

The service supported 425 carers and 555 clients on the NDIS, including providing 258 NDIS clients with 65,864 hours of in-home care and community support during the year. The service, which operates from offices in Clare and Nuriootpa, also assisted 136 people who are frail and aged with 11,400 hours of in-home, community and group support.

Speaking at the AGM, chair Monica Davies said that despite some financial challenges Carers and Disability Link had continued to provide outstanding service to those in need. The challenge for carers organisations is often that they have to respond to a whole range of government and bureaucratic red tape, and sometimes these do not match up with the needs of the community. While things are improving, it does sometimes get in the way of organisations like Carers and Disability Link providing the best support possible.

One area I would just like to mention is the support they provide to young carers. This group in particular have their education and a whole range of their lives changed by the requirement to care for others.