Art Club Celebrates Children’s Artwork. Let’s Create Art Club, Swindon’s largest children’s visual arts organisation, celebrates their summer art competition winners with an exhibition at Richard Jefferies Museum.
Founded by local artist Rachel Bray, Let’s Create Art Club opened their first ‘Swindon Summer Art Competition’ in July.
Theme for a dream
This year’s theme was ‘My Imagination’. The competition encouraged KS1 and KS2 aged children to create art inspired by the people, topics, and things that spark their imagination.
For our first competition, we had over 140 entries from children aged 4 to 11,’ said Rachel. ‘It was much harder to judge than I anticipated. There is such talent in Swindon and there were some stand out pieces unique interpretations and imaginative artworks.’
Children could submit art created from a range of materials.
‘We saw artwork created using everything, from poster paint to collage to driftwood. It was great to see a wide range of mediums used. The entries we received that embraced the theme of ‘My Imagination’ shone out’.
The winners
The two winners of the Let’s Create Art Club’s art competition were:
KS1 Winner – Poppy, aged 7. Poppy created a colourful, fantastic flying caped cat, with a watermelon sun using metallic pens.
KS2 Winner – Georgia, aged 8. Georgia created an intricate and well thought out entertainment treehouse that included everything from an art studio to a mermaid lagoon.
‘Our KS1 winner was well deserved. Their bold colours, fun use of characters and interesting ideas throughout their design simply stood out in this category,’ Rachel commented.
‘Our KS2 competition was strong. We chose our winner because she’d packed it with thoughts, ideas, details and interesting ideas throughout. This design stood out in this category’ commented Rachel.
Both of our winners received hampers full of art supplies worth more than £60. Many of our winners received their and certificates in their school assemblies. It was lovely for them to get this recognition in front of their peers.’
Exhibited
All artwork from the competition was exhibited at the Richard Jefferies Museum across three rooms from 22nd to 31st July. Due to the competition’s fantastic response, Rachel has big plans to continue and extend its reach.
I want this to be an annual art competition. We had over £300 worth of prizes given away and I would like to secure sponsors for next year to make the prizes even bigger!’
To Rachel, this is more than a mere competition.
‘It means a lot to me to bring attention to Swindon’s children’s artwork. Daily, I hear the stories that live behind the art and am often wowed with the individual style that can be effortless to kids,’ she said.
‘They deserve to have an event that celebrates them and that they can feel proud to have entered and, in some cases, even won.’
Let’s Create Art Club is a member of the Institute of Children’s Activity Providers (ICAP). That ensures the club meets high standards for safety, inclusion and engagement. They provide a safe, fun, and pressure-free artistic environments through after-school clubs, weekend workshops and holiday art camps for children aged four to twelve.
Secure a place at one of their 18 after school clubs in Term 1 here: https://www.letscreateartclub.co.uk/
