Figtree High School students are the latest group to express their love of Wollongong through ‘’finding the beauty in the everyday’’. And 60 of their images will take pride of place at the Wollongong Youth Centre as part of the ‘I love Wollongong Because’ project. The majority of new panels will be installed from Friday and follow on from the images from Dapto High School students that have been on display at the Burelli Street youth centre since March. The project coordinated by Wollongong Youth Services aims to show the joy and beauty that young people find in the city and specifically in their particular part of the city. Youth services coordinator Alison Bradford said the images presented showed the students had a lot of pride for their city. ‘’From the images of wildlife, to built environment and people, students have expressed a real appreciation of the things they love about Wollongong,’’ she said. Twenty of these images have been printed onto large panels that will be exhibited on the Keira and Burelli Street exteriors of Wollongong Youth Centre. There will also be 40 artworks on display inside the youth centre’s exhibition space until September 15. Figtree HS visual arts design and photography teacher Melissa Cook said 35 students from years 8 to 12 enjoyed taking part in the ‘’great project’’. ‘’We tried to break it down to Figtree but there is not a lot of imagery, so they had to look quite deeper at the things that surround them to find beauty in the everyday –  and that’s what they’ve tried to do,’’ Miss Cook said. Figtree HS creative and performing arts relieving head teacher Michael Malouf said the school was very proud of the fantastic photographs produced by the photgraphic and digital media students. ‘’We are really excited about this project and the opportunity for works of visual arts to be presented to the public because it is vital that visual art is seen and it makes the work much more important,’’ he said. ‘’Our principal Karen Burke is also very supportive of the project and creative and performing arts.’’ Year 11 student Samuel Birch said the project allowed him to develop his passion for photography and capture the beautiful things in life. Year 10 student Clara Lazova also enjoyed producing three black and white images for the ‘I love Wollongong Because’ project.
