News Release
Transatlantic Project Urges Kids to ‘Picture Peace’
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| The image of the masks was taken by Megan Malone at St Vincent de Paul Primary School.The subject is unity and the image was made as part of an exercise which explored light and shadow. |
The image of the intersecting circles on gravel was taken by Marcus Beatty at Ligoniel Primary School. |
The University of Ulster has teamed up with the University of California, to offer two schools in Northern Ireland and two in Orange County, California, the chance to mount an exhibition of work on the theme of peace.
Mr Jonathan Cummins, lecturer in time-based media at UU said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the kids to use photography to create their own artistic interpretations of peace.
“Picturing Peace is an educational programme that lets children use digital cameras to develop their visual intelligence, including observational powers, photography skill and appreciation of images.
“The children learned to create images of peace through a process of first discussing and visualizing words associated with peace such as friendship, tolerance and harmony. The next step is to actually capture that image in a photograph.
“Some of our own art and design students from UU went into the schools to help facilitate the programme. It was a learning experience for them too as it helped them develop the communication skills needed to convey the many meanings of peace as well as fostering friendship through the international exchanges to meet their counterparts in California.”
“Another important purpose of the project is to use the children’s photography to support world peace. We wanted to help facilitate communication between the pupils of the Catholic and Protestant schools involved in the programme, so a dedicated website has been created on which the children can upload and exchanged their images for commentary with the other schools.
“We are also going to enhance that interaction by bringing the children, who are from St Vincent de Paul Primary and Ligoniel Primary in North Belfast, to workshops at the University of Ulster. We hope this will encourage friendships and understanding as well as strengthening community relationships.
“The children will also be corresponding with their counterparts in California via the internet.”
The final product of all the children’s work, from Northern Ireland and California, will be mounted in an exhibition that will run simultaneously in Belfast and the United States in Spring 2005. There will also be a website featuring all of the photography.
“By organising the exchange of peace photographs on the web, we hope that children of different nationalities and religions can reach mutual understanding through sharing and analysing their images,” added Jonathan.
For further information, please contact:
Trina Porter
Telephone: 028 71675511
Email: Trina Porter
