This Park's Alive!

This Park’s Alive! is happening! After working in four schools during 2025 the project artists are now beginning to co-design digitally guided experiences for four different parks. The participating children are making all the key decisions about how they want to share their local park with others. 

The new digital guides will be installed as QR codes on signage in the parks and will be free for children to use at any time. These are not on-screen experiences! The project seeks to use devices as tools (rather than the experience itself), to invite new types of creative engagement with the places.

The two-year-long program has been designed by Melbourne artist Jessica Wilson and is being delivered in collaboration with local visual artists: Beth Arnold and Katie Stackhouse. Over 100 children are participating from four primary schools - Tarwin Lower Primary School (PS), Toora PS, Nyora PS and Koonwarra Village School.

The digital experiences they create together will be launched later in 2026, in the four different parks. 

This project is funded by a Victorian Government's VicHealth Growing Healthy Communities Grant, which has an objective to "support young Victorians and their families overcome structural barriers to achieve good health and wellbeing”.  Specifically, the funding seeks to “create more active, inclusive and connected neighbourhoods through sport, recreation, arts and community programs using local places and spaces”. 

We are excited about turning familiar South Gippsland parks - traditionally seen as places for playground activity, skateboarding, sport or picnics - into zones of imagination and creative engagement.