Young people at St Katharine’s Centre in
Edinburgh had the chance to sell their own artwork recently. The event was an art exhibition on Wednesday 1 April 2009 to raise money for a former teacher who had sadly passed away from breast cancer.
As part of YES’s programmes which run in St Katharine’s and Howdenhall Centres in Edinburgh, young people each created a piece of artwork with a pink theme (for breast cancer) and then set up and ran the exhibition.
They welcomed visitors with pink lemonade and snacks and chatted about their inspiration and how they created their pieces. Head of Education at the Centres, Andy Marjoribanks, welcomed everyone and explained the reasons for the exhibition.
Visitors included the former teacher’s grandparents and son, representatives from children’s services, staff from St Katharine’s and from YES.
A set of 9 postcards featuring each piece of art could be purchased and donations could also be made. Some of the young people had pledged to sell their artwork to friends and family and some were sold to visitors attending on the day.
For the most successful piece of artwork, judged by Della Martin from Young Enterprise
Scotland, the prize would be having it specially made into a canvas.
Every young person involved had specific reasons for making their piece of artwork and, as Della said, “they had all thought about what they were going to create”. All were unique so choosing a winner was not easy but the eventual winner was Dale with his painting “Positively Pink” – of an aeroplane pulling a banner to “get the message across that we have to raise money for cancer research”.
Photos of each piece of artwork with the inspiration behind them can be seen further down (click "Read more" to see!).
Everyone who participated received a giant Easter egg. At the end of the exhibition, visitors were treated to a short dance display in the gym hall by two of the girls from the Centre!
