The project was conceived in June, when Timaru Youth Collective founder Jared Pratt wanted to give young musicians a place to be creative and hone their craft.
He said he was very appreciative of the wider community coming together to help create the new space.
"It’s amazing. It’s been quite humbling knowing other people want to help us out and see the vision of what we want to do.
"I’m very grateful particularly to Bunnings because we don’t really have any money, so it’s good to be able to still do things with no money.
"The project has ticked a lot of boxes [as] to what we’re about, especially with the young guys from Ara coming in to help us out and doing the work.
"We’re not just about doing things for young people; we want to engage with young people, so the fact they were able to put some work in here and have some ownership of it is great."
The students attend regular school four days a week and then spend every Friday at Ara studying for and working in various trades.
Ara carpenter tutor Paul Kelliher said it was a pleasure to have been able to help out with the project.
"We do some community-based projects — not a lot, only for the very deserving.
"We have students from various schools, some from Waimate, Ashburton and Mount Hutt, so they all come from a fair distance.
"We do stuff like this — a bit of housework, some painting and just other various stuff to see what the students are interested in."
Bunnings activity organiser Maddy Cummings said the company was happy to support the Timaru Youth Collective.
"The team at Bunnings Timaru find it really important to help out in the community and create spaces for kids, especially giving them a space to create music and interact with other kids."
Mr Pratt said the next part would be kitting the performance space out with equipment.
"I’ve been given a whole lot of sound stuff — it’s just a matter of figuring out what’s working and what isn’t.
"We’ll probably do a few smaller events and get some bands playing to iron it out and then we’ll have a bit of an opening showcase night."
He encouraged anyone wishing to help or use the space to get in touch with the Timaru Youth Collective.
