Kids' Guernica at Kanaike Elementary School in Japan

 

The sixth graders of Kanaike elementary school had a year of “Sending a Message of Peace” in 2013. The first semester, they visited Nagasaki as a school excursion and this experience motivated them to discuss how they could send a message of peace in their school life as the leading grade of the school.

They realized the importance to accept other friends’ ideas in their daily school life and organized a committee to create a Kids’ Guernica peace painting. Finally, they exhibited it in front of their school gymnasium for the memory of their graduation.

They collected each idea of peace painting among them and discussed how they could express their wish for peace in a painting again and again. Then, they decided to make a painting to show the birth of peace through connecting their hearts and resonating them. A phoenix was composed as a symbol of peace flying from their school with a paper folding crane to connect all living things. They decided who colored which part of the painting by themselves and worked together to complete it. 

The painting was displayed as a stage curtain on the day of their graduation ceremony. Their families and many participants from their community really appreciated it with a big applause.

The sixth graders’ hearts became one through all the process of this Kids’ Guernica project from the planning to the finishing by themselves and they could send a message of peace to many people.  

Kids' Guernica at Hartstern Elementary in Louisville

A wonderful peace painting was created by 60 fifth grade students at Hartstern Elementary in Louisville, KY, U.S.A.

Kids' Guernica in Bangalore, India

December 28, 2013-January 04, 2014

A Kids’ Guernica workshop was held in Bangalore, India. The new peace painting was created by Indian Children who had experienced child labor and Japanese children from Fukushima. It was a good opportunity to know each other for both Indian and Japanese children through the process of creating a huge peace painting. Indian children knew the serious situation of the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima and Japanese children realized the hardship of child labor. The workshop was organized by Born Free Art School and Born Free Art Japan.

Kids' Guernica in Barquisimeto, Venezuela

 

New Version of Kids' Guernica at Ichioka Junior High School, Osaka, Japan

November, 2013

A new Kids’ Guernica was completed by 130 students of the eighth graders of t Ichioka Junior High School in Osaka, Japan and it was displayed at their school festival. As a part of peace education, first, they studied about inhumanity of bombing such as in Guernica and researched a case of Liberian Civil War to understand how innocent children were always victimized during any war time. After that, each of them expressed a message of peace on a piece of drawing paper and all of their images were composed into a Kids’ Guernica mural. They learned the necessity of working together for a peaceful world through the process of matching the color of each image with the whole color of the mural.

Kids' Guernica at Daisan Iwabuchi Primary School in Tokyo, Japan

 

A Kids’ Guernica was created by the sixth-grade students of Daisan Iwabuchi Primary School in Tokyo, Japan,

Toward Peace: A World of Smiles

When each of us

We can change our future.

Even each power is small, if we can work together,

All people of the world will be happy.

We will create a peaceful world.

Two Kids' Guernica Paintings in Northern Ireland

August 31, 2013

Two kids Guernica paintings were completed in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.  They were painted in The Glens Youth Club, Cushendall, and in Broughshane Youth Club, Broughshane. The paintings will go on public display as part of the Derry City of Culture Celebrations.  The project was implemented by artist Raymond Watson, with the Belfast Flags Project.