Kids’ Own is delighted to be working with Sligo Traveller Support Group’s Homework Club on a short project which responds creatively to the UN Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Kids’ Own Associate Artist Sarah Ellen Lundy and Associate Writer Mary Branley are working with the group and together they are responding to this year’s theme “Building Forward Together: Ending Persistent Poverty, Respecting all People and Our Planet”. There’s lots of scope for thinking about messages of inclusivity and respect and the Homework Club have been busy responding through new artwork and conversations. The children looked at old coins with depictions of animals on them, and also made potato prints, connecting ideas of our reliance on the animal and natural world with issues of poverty. You can see some of their beautiful responses in the images below.

Artist Sarah said: ‘We used visual cues around the motifs of wealth and poverty such as potatoes [synonymous with the great Irish famine & the extreme hardship of this time] as well as using actual obsolete legal tender coinage to explore the discrepancy between the depictions of the animals and their self-sufficiency and our own dependency on a capitalist system. These tropes allowed us to unpack the themes and make marks through thinking about what can be construed as non-monetary wealth & that which makes our lives ‘rich”.

We look forward to seeing the rest of the group’s artwork and their thoughts soon!