**UPDATE JULY 2021** We have at last had permissions from the Highways Agency to proceed! We will now start installing the artwork in the agreed locations in our local town, in addition to the other locations detailed below.
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The best laid plans…..! We held a drain art competition for children at the end of 2020 in the hopes that we would be able to decorate lots of the storm drains in our area. We wanted to highlight that these drains lead to the sea, so anything that is littered on the roads around them can get washed straight out to sea. Unfortunately, after months of to-ing and fro-ing with the Highways Agency, we have decided to bite the bullet for the time being and find some alternative locations for the art. The submissions we received were absolutely awesome, there are so many talented kids out there who are passionate about the environment.
We are really happy to say that we have found some brilliant new homes for the artwork, hurray! Working with the fabulous Hilsea Lido, we will be installing lots of the submissions at the Lido and around the car park drains. Emsworth Sailing Club has also come to the rescue and agreed that we can install some of the art around the drain in the car park. Watch this space for other locations as and when we can persuade them!
We had over 80 beautiful and creative entries and it was incredibly hard to choose 10 winners, so we could only whittle down to 20 winners and have combined a few of the designs as they were similar in the end, so will be using 15 designs – and we may use some of the rest in the end too anyway! Here are the winning entries. We’d love every child who entered to know that we thought all their designs were fantastic – we chose designs that we thought would be easy to actually put onto the ground, across a range of age groups.
The entries above were by children from a range of schools – we are only including their first names and ages here, in no particular order!
Sophie Age 9
Effie Age 9
Reuben Yr 6
Tabitha Yr 3
Ava Yr 1
Lucy Yr 4
Ben Age 8
Matilda Yr 6
Lily Age 7
Ditcham Park Student Age 11
Ditcham Park Student Age 11
Amelia Yr 6
Hester Yr 7
Frankie Yr 4
Lara Yr 3
Sam
Elysia Age 7
Charlie Yr R
Cameron Age 7
Felix Age 9
Oliver Age 7
We loved every single one of the submissions that we received and we want to thank every child that took part – you are all brilliant and your pictures were wonderful! You can see all the entries in our slideshow gallery below.