Pupils from Hillingdon Manor School are making their mark on the global stage after designing and creating a giant Peace Banner for Kids of Guernica, an international art project dedicated to promoting peace, understanding and unity through children’s artwork.
Founded in the late 1990s, Kids of Guernica brings together young people from around the world to share powerful messages of hope and peace. Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s iconic painting Guernica, the project encourages children to express their vision for a more peaceful future through large-scale collaborative artworks known as Peace Banners.
Hillingdon Manor School is incredibly proud to be creating the only UK contribution to this year’s project and one of the first Peace Banners of its kind to be created by autistic pupils in Europe.
The project has provided pupils with a unique opportunity to explore creativity, collaboration and self-expression while contributing to an initiative with international significance. Through their artwork, pupils have shared their own messages of peace and demonstrated the power of creativity to connect communities across cultures and continents.
Once completed, the banner will embark on an exciting journey. It will be showcased at the WWW Art event in London before travelling to Argentina for an international peace conference. Following this, it will become a permanent part of the Peace Banners Collective, joining contributions from children around the world.
This remarkable achievement reflects the talent, creativity and dedication of the pupils, as well as the commitment of staff to providing meaningful opportunities that inspire confidence, ambition and global citizenship.
We are immensely proud of everyone involved in bringing this project to life and helping ensure that the voices of autistic young people are represented on an international platform.
A special thank you goes to Colin Sugden, Art Lead, whose passion and dedication made this incredible opportunity possible.