Manor Primary School children paint dreams on umbrellas

Hopes and dreams of children at Manor Primary School, Uckfield, are represented in pictures they have painted onto umbrellas.

Pupils in years 5 and 6 were taking part in the Matt Lamb Umbrellas for Peace, a global art project launched by Matt Lamb, an artist, sculptor, philospher and globe-trotter who is also a tireless activist for world peace.

Victoria Martin, peace education officer at the University of Bradford, spent two days at Manor encouraging the children to explore and share their personal worries and hopes.

They then illustrated their dreams in pain on the umbrellas. Hopes included ending world war, combating illness and saving endangered animals.

All sorts of personal dreams were illustrated from having a happy family to being an architect, owning a restaurant, eating the world's largest ice-cream and seeing a shooting star.

One of the children, William Payne, said: "It was really good because you don't always want to talk about your hopes and fears, but this helped us share them together." Chloe Harland added: "I enjoyed this because it was really different."

Victoria Martin said: "It has been a pleasure to work with such thoughtful children who really care about the world they're growing up in. They were very enthusiastic and ambitious with their ideas and there are some fantastic pieces of artwork too."

Thanks to Ron Hill for the photographs.

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