Glen Innes' new artistic hub helps locals shine

The Te Oro Youth Music and Arts Centre in Glen Innes. Photo / Sara Orme Photography

Walking through the large glass-paned building the sound of art-in-the-making reverberates through the halls, the corridors and around its exterior.
Glen Innes' new artistic hub, Te Oro Arts and Music Centre, has embodied the community's artistic talents in its very form and structure.

Designed to represent a grove of trees for the community to shelter beneath, it's made up of a cluster of sturdy wooden trunks that hold up a geometrised leaf canopy.

The centre, which officially opened in May, has in a mere few months, become a vibrant, central creative hub for the locals.

Just in the entrance three young girls come hurtling over, to meet in a loud hug. To the right sits a group of slightly older teenagers, bopping along to the sound of music.

Inside the performance space, a little further into the corridor, a group of singers warm-up, throwing sound around the open area.

It's this vibrant image of a creative community that drove facility coordinator Petelo Esekielu to be a part of the project.

He said an earlier study of the community revealed a desire to provide a place that "wasn't just about sport".

Mr Esekielu a Glen Innes local, who was also involved in the architectural design of the building, said Te Oro gave the youth a place to realise their creative talents.

"It came from the observation of kids just hanging around in town with nothing better to do, but knowing they have these creative gifts...they needed a place to express these talents."

The building, situated next to the local library and marae, offered classes in the performance arts, music and the visual arts, taken by leading artists in the industry, at a cost of no more than five dollars per person.

Its facilities included a performance space, music rooms, digital editing suites and a dance studio.

"Most of the children would never have had the chance to work with this caliber of artists otherwise," said Mr Esekielu.

Eleven-year-old Psalm Cowley-Davis, a Beyonce fan, was one of those taking part in the centre's singing classes.

"I came because it was close and I knew one of the teachers," she said.

She also liked being part of a bigger group and being with friends.

Singing tutor, Mille Grant, said the facility was vital to the liveability of the area.

"It helps the students, the adults to keep continuing what they love and what they enjoy," she said. "It is paramount to living to their work ethic to everything.

"It keeps it off the street, they can explore, they can fall, they can try, they can hit many barriers in a safe environment and learn how to overcome them."

Mr Esekielu said already in the short time the centre has been running, he has witnessed a change in the behavior of some of the youth.

"The boys down there, they have changed, they are really well-behaved, they usually are really different...but they have responded well."

He hoped the building would change the negative perceptions around Glen Innes and become a new positive symbol and "beacon of hope" for the community.

About the facility

• Two-storey building designed to represent a floating geometrised leaf canopy atop a series of timber trunks and envision a grove of trees for the community to shelter beneath.
• Designed by Petelo Esekielu and Martin Leung.
• The name Te Oro acknowledges how the sounds of nature connect people and place with the past, present and future.
• It includes sustainable elements to reduce running costs including a rain tank to store water and 256 photovoltaic solar roof panels that will generate 50 percent of Te Oro's power.
• The building is 1,481sqm and can cater for up to 394 people.