The Obeisance Project; an oil paint portraiture business brought to life by an 18-year-old with a vision, the assistance of an industry mentor and YMCA HQ’s Pitch Please! competition.
The Pitch Please! competition offered a $1,000 business boost to a creative young person as well as one year’s free use of the new business incubator and co-working space, YCollaborate, at YMCA HQ in Leederville.
18-year-old Amberley Bradley’s winning project aims to recognise unsung heroes within the community who regularly do wonderful things without seeking any praise.
“The grant is so helpful because it’s going to allow me to buy the materials like paint, easels and canvases that I wouldn’t be able to afford usually, as well as the studio space (YCollaborate) to paint,” Amberley said.
“This has given me the push I needed but also the funding that I’d never have been able to get myself - I definitely couldn’t have done it without this competition.”
Amberley won’t be the only young person to benefit from the competition, with the second and third place finalists receiving a $300 and $200 EFTPOS card and, along with fourth place, all finalists have been given free access to the YCollaborate co-working space.
As well as the prizes for all finalists, YMCA HQ Manager Andrew Rigg has made sure the resource is incredibly affordable for all young people to use.
“The YCollaborate co-working space provides a supportive, safe environment for young people wanting to develop projects or businesses and provides access to a range of support programs including access to professional mentors, workshop and professional development opportunities,” Andrew said.
“Heavily subsidised membership plans are available to young people under the age of 26 with workspace hire starting from as little as $2 per hour.”
Amberley’s business venture will kick start with 10-15 portraits, which she’ll then display at an exhibition to auction her work off with the subject matters present at the event.
Andrew said: “Amberley’s entry was stand out on paper and her pitch at the final event brought it to life. She is a young, talented artist – she displayed one of her portraits during her pitch and it was amazing.”
“Working with the mentor was really great, I didn’t really have any idea of how I was going to set my pitch out, but with feedback and writing it all out we slowly came up with a formulated plan of how I was going to speak,” Amberley said.
YMCA HQ’s YCollaborate space and Pitch Please! competition have been made possible by YMCA WA, Small Business Development Corporation, Spoilt Photo Booths, RTR FM and Be Your Own Business.