See Narrandera through the eyes of its youth

The Cad Factory artists Vic and Sarah McEwan collaborated with 40 students from Narrandera High and their teacher Ms Jacqui Ryding on the creation of an iPad app called Our Narrandera.

Our Narrandera celebrates the “unofficial monuments” of Narrandera. The places that are important because of personal stories and connections. Six locations have been selected to adventure and these include; Narrandera Park, Brewery Flats, Lake Talbot Lookout, Narrandera Cemetery, Rocky Waterhole and Town Beach. Each location contains whimsical facts, secret histories or imaginative responses using painting, drawing, story telling, poetry, video, music, photography and site specific processes.

During September and October last year, Vic and Sarah McEwan gave workshops to Jacqui Ryding’s Year 7 and Year 10 English students every week. Once the workshops were finished, Vic and Sarah worked on the students material, extracting elements to make digital content and build the app.

Vic McEwan says, “We are interested in creating infrastructure for cultural tourism that allows for new and exciting ways to explore our towns, our communities and our people. By using the endless possibilities of an app, we are able to create a high impact project that allows us to explore many different artistic mediums.”

“The school based projects that we do at The Cad Factory aim to provide young people with skills, processes, ways of thinking and problem solving that are all involved in being a contemporary artist. We loved working with the students and found them inspiring and insightful. We’re so proud of them for taking risks and exploring their creative processes. There are definitely a few future artists in Narrandera,” says Sarah McEwan.

Narrandera Council will promote the app in their Visitor Information Centre as an innovative platform for cultural tourism and as a positive framing of youth activity and arts education in the region.

The app has been created only for the iPad. It is available to download now, for free, in the Apple App Store. Simply search for Our Narrandera, download, and enjoy.