Ramp Up: Young Riders Making Their Mark
Saturday 22 August | 1–4pm | Oatley Park Castle | Ages 14-18 | Early bird tickets from $5.50
Ride bikes? Like making things? Spend a Saturday making street art in the bush — and have your say about riding in local parks.
Ramp Up is a street art workshop. You’ll learn spray paint and stencil techniques and create your own art piece inspired by the native plants found where you ride. You’ll work with local street artist and youth worker Luke Chaplin to create an artwork you’re proud of.
We’ll also talk about how young riders use the bush. Can you build jumps and ride trails while still protecting native plants and trees?
This event is run by two independent artists who are genuinely curious about what you have to say. We can take your feedback to decision makers (if you want us to).
You’ll also have the opportunity to talk to volunteers who have been caring for local bushland for over 70 years.
This workshop is for you if you:
- love graffiti art, illustration or street culture
- love the bush, but want to use it in ways that YOU want
- are thinking about volunteering or a career in nature, ecology, horticulture or land management
- want to connect with people who are actively caring for the environment
Ramp Up is an Inspiring Australia NSW initiative supported by the NSW and Australian Government. Ramp Up is part of National Science Week 2026
About Luke Chaplin
Ramp Up is led by Luke Chaplin. Luke is an artist and a qualified youth worker, and he’s been running art workshops with young people since 2011.
You may have seen his work around. He painted the mural in the arcade on Forest Road in Hurstville, and the one inside the barber shop in Mortdale. He’s run workshops at Jannali, Blakehurst, Beverly Hills and Kingsgrove North high schools, and at PCYC St George. He paints skate decks too.
Luke has a Cert IV in Youth Work, training in youth mental health first aid and safeguarding, and a current Working with Children Check.
Ramp Up Is A Project By Studio Elsie
Studio Elsie’s art programmes and workshops are grounded in evidence, delivered by skilled practitioners, and shaped around the needs and interests of the people who attend. We work in partnership with trusted local organisations — including local councils and youth service providers— to make sure our workshops are safe, inclusive and open to everyone.
Studio Elsie designs and delivers workshops and creative health programmes that are enjoyable, educational and support community cohesion and healing.
Studio Elsie Founder and Ramp Up Facilitator
Studio Elsie was founded by artist and creative health specialist Vanessa Bartlett
Vanessa’s relationship with art began at fifteen, when her teacher took her class to Tate Liverpool — a gallery built on the belief that art should reach younger and more diverse audiences. As a young person with undiagnosed dyslexia who had struggled in other academic subjects, she found something there that changed the direction of her life. She was good at art. She understood it. And that mattered.
Vanessa has built a career creating accessible art events and gathering evidence for the health benefits of the arts — completing a PhD in arts and health in Australia.
Her projects have engaged neurodivergent communities, young people, and people living with chronic health conditions, always with a trauma-informed, evidence-based approach. Her work has featured in The Guardian, ABC Sydney and BBC Radio 4.
Now based in the Georges River area of South Sydney, Vanessa is bringing that expertise home. Studio Elsie is her vision for what creative health can look like at a community level — rigorous enough to satisfy a researcher, warm enough to welcome anyone through the door. Studio Elsie is named after the art teacher — Elsie — who started it all.
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