Children and young people’s artwork is celebrated at an awards ceremony and exhibition hosted by dot-art Schools and Edge Hill University, giving the public the chance to see the creative artworks. 

Primary and secondary pupils from 80 schools across the Liverpool City Region and beyond took part in the inter-school art competition, with the overall winners announced and celebrated at a special prize giving event on 9 June.  

The winning artwork from each participating school will be on display in the dot-art Schools 2022 exhibition at the iconic Royal Liver Building starting on Friday 10th June.  

This year’s exhibition focuses on sustainability to mark dot-art Schools’ 10th anniversary of showcasing and celebrating children and young people’s creativity.  

The awards were shortlisted by an expert panel and the overall winners decided by Susan M Coles, past president and member of council of NSEAD, secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Art, Craft and Design Education and an Associate of The Big Draw. The event was run with support from student interns from Edge Hill University.

The winners are: 

The Primary School Overall Winner is “School Day” by Cleo James of Blackmoor Park Primary School. 

First runner-up is “Protecting our Environment” by Zaira Di Francescantonio of Holy Rosary Catholic Primary School and the Second runner-up is “Sleeping Cat” by Charlotte Simon of St Sebastian’s Catholic Primary School and Nursery.  

The Overall Secondary Winner is “Rick the Otter” by Jake McCoy of Maghull High School. 

First runner-up is “Help” by Charlie Button of St Hilda’s CE High School and Second runner-up is “The Bench” by Nikita of Greenbank High School.  

The Protect Our Environment theme Primary Winner is “Save our polar bears” by Roman Waring, of Bridgemere CE Primary School. 

The primary runner up is “Save the planet 20” by Nathan of St Matthew’s CE Primary School.

The Protect Our Environment Secondary Winner is “Extinction” by Eve O’Mahony, of Bellerive FCJ Catholic College.

The secondary runner up is “Insects & the environment 13” by Nina Renwick Horne of King David High School.  

Environmental theme judge Duane Chong of Grow Wellbeing also awarded highly commended to “The helpful cat” by Isaac Creighton Year 5 student of Childwall Valley Primary School and “Save our whales” by Ollie E of Delamere Academy.  

The exhibition of the winning artworks is open from 10th to 24th June on the ground floor of the Royal Liver Building, 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday and it’s FREE  to visit. On display are the artworks by talented Year 5 and Year 9 students. 

Carolyn Murray, dot-art Schools project manager said: “The standard this year has been absolutely incredible. It’s been 10 years since we launched and year on year, I am amazed by the quality of the artwork the children create. 

Many of them have also embraced our special 10th birthday theme of protecting our environment. They have thoughtfully expressed their feelings towards the climate crisis and the need to preserve the natural world. The result is some of the best and most emotive art we’ve ever had.” 

As the leading project partner, Edge Hill provides dot-art with access to schools across the region, expanding the initiative and allowing more children than ever to take part. The University is nationally renowned for high quality teacher training and has a long history of teaching education going back to its foundation in 1885. 

Associate Dean of Edge Hill’s Faculty of Education, Dr Helen O’Keeffe said: “It’s a real honour to have celebrated dot-art Schools’ milestone 10th birthday with them this year. To help them celebrate we funded twelve local schools entrance fees so they could join in the fun. 

We’ve also been able to join the discussions about climate change in schools, combining our passion for keeping arts in the curriculum and educating children about climate change and the environment. It provides a great opportunity for our students to learn more about teaching art and supporting the mental health of their pupils.” 

Established back in 2012, dot-art Schools’ impact has grown each year, with 602 schools participating to date, and over 9,000 young artists having entered their artwork. 

Lucy Byrne, Managing Director of dot-art said: “We’ve loved seeing the competition grow over the last decade. Every year children and young people use their creativity to express themselves and display their incredible talents in such imaginative ways. Hopefully we’ve helped them to realise how talented they are, given them a confidence boost and encouraged them to think about a career in the arts.” 

To find out more about dot-art Schools and how your school can get involved  contact Carolyn Murray on 0345 017 6660 or Carolyn.murray@dot-art.com.