Kids’ Own has a special opportunity for young people, aged 10–13, to participate in an online visual thinking initiative.

Working alongside artist/curator Vanya Lambrecht Ward, young participants will have a special role in supporting and shaping the development of a new exhibition featuring artwork and writing from Kids’ Own’s extensive 23-year archive. Over a series of 6 online sessions, the team will explore aspects of the Kids’ Own archive – our books, our way of working, and visual art processes before selecting artwork and writing for the exhibition, as well as thinking about physical spaces of the exhibition and ways of presenting work for young audiences.

The work of the Visual Thinking Team will be instrumental in developing the exhibition, which will premiere at The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon in late 2020, before moving to other venues in 2021/22. It is also important to Kids’ Own that the young participants have a physical presence in the exhibition, be that through inclusion of their voices and artwork in the exhibition brochure, or video presence in the exhibition itself.

The project will take place over six weeks in June and early July 2020.

As places are very limited, children are asked to fill in the application form attached and return to Kids’ Own at [email protected] by: Friday 22nd May 2020. Due to popular demand, the deadline has been extended from the 14th May until the 22nd.

We welcome applications from children of all backgrounds and abilities and from anywhere in Ireland. Click here for the application form!

Some essential requirements:

• Children must be aged between 10 and 13.
• Good broadband connection to allow for online participation.
• A strong interest in books, visual art and exhibitions and an interest in thinking, talking, and writing about these subjects in some depth.

There is a participation fee of €35 As part of this, participants will receive a pack, including Kids’ Own books to keep. Kids’ Own has a strong ethos of equal access and inclusion. Please contact us if the participation fee is prohibitive for you.