Creative Challenge
Image Credit: Rachel Ogle and Leith Alexander
An arts residency program igniting imagination across WA
Creative Challenge is one of Barking Gecko Arts’ core artist-in-residency programs, bringing two professional teaching artists into a school or community to co-create powerful arts experiences with children.
Over one or two weeks, artists and young people collaborate to explore big ideas, celebrate local identity, and transform stories into original art projects. This is a child-led, process-driven program where imagination takes the lead, and every voice is valued.
Each residency ends with a joyful community celebration that showcases the creativity of local children and their connection to place.
After 30 years of delivering this beloved program, AWESOME Arts has brought Creative Challenge into the newly merged Barking Gecko Arts, ensuring its legacy continues and grows in communities across Western Australia.
Designed especially for regional and remote WA, Creative Challenge fosters pride, ownership and artistic courage, one community at a time.
Every year, the Creative Challenge Program is broadly underpinned by a theme. In 2025, our theme is My Habitat.
In 2025, we want Western Australian children to consider where they call home and where they feel safest. Where does your habitat sit in the ecosystem, and how is that unique to you?
Creative Challenge celebrates the imaginative power of young people. We ask children, What elements make up your habitat? Is it the physical space, the environment, the buildings, the community? Or is it a combination of a few things? And how can we create the best habitat to thrive and grow?
Where do we go?
Creative Challenge conducts residencies across the Pilbara, Kimberly, Mid-West, Gascoyne, Goldfields- Esperance, Great Southern and South West regions of Western Australia. Barking Gecko Arts visits everywhere from bustling regional hubs, to the most remote communities in WA.
If your school or community group would like to know more about the Creative Challenge please email learning@barkinggecko.com.au
Creative Challenge Partners
