Our Country Through Our Eyes Exhibition of Artwork from Comhairle na bPáistí

Our Country Through Our Eyes Exhibition of Artwork from

Comhairle na bPist

26^th February 2^nd March

The exhibition is the work of the children and young people of South Dublin who participated in the Comhairle na bPist seminar held on 7^th November 2006 in the Moran Red Cow Hotel and will run in County Hall, Tallaght from 26^th February to 2^nd March.

The children and young people divided up into working groups facilitated by the youth service staff and the staff of the community services department. There were approximately 10 children in each working group. Together, the participants began brainstorming around the theme for the day: Our Country through our Eyes All opinions were recorded on a flip chart. Having decided on the positive and negative aspects of the communities in which the participants live, a piece of artwork, representing the views of the participants, was compiled by each working group. The first visual piece was a team effort which represented the good and bad points of the communities in which the participants live.

Secondly, the working group participants were asked to trace the shape of their hands and write an opinion of their own on it. Artwork was a way for the children to have fun and remain engaged and enthusiastic about the seminar while also them a way in which to express their opinions in a creative and effective way.

After lunch, the children nominated a spokes person from their group who presented the feed back for their group to all seminar participants. Following the presentation of this work, each participant, in each of the working groups glued their piece of artwork (the drawing of their hand) to a large map of Ireland.

All the participants reassembled in their working groups to draw up a list of recommendations under the theme Our Country through our Eyes all the children participated really well and contributed with great enthusiasm in the discussion of the theme