On World Children’s Day, We Celebrate Your Hopes and Dreams

THANK YOU! 

It’s been a truly immense week with the global exhibition going live all over the world, I wish there were words to say how proud, excited and emotional it makes all of us at WriteUnite. It’s only possible because of all of you. 

When we first started to think about doing an exhibition, we didn’t know how to pull it off. All we knew was that we wanted to take the ideas young people shared with us in our latest book even further. When we talked to young people, they told us that having their work seen and being heard is what they really need for their ideas. So, we decided to take young people’s ideas from the pages of the book to the pavements of cities around the world.

This week, almost 40 pieces of work from young people have appeared in 10 cities all over the world. Young people’s work has taken over bus stops, billboards, signs in shopping centres, big adverts on roundabouts, digital screens in stations, benches and bike shelters. The visions and dreams of young people are appearing right now in Mumbai, Nairobi, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, London, Paris, Sydney, Bangkok, Singapore and Washington DC. 

And we’ve got over 125 pieces of work from young people in a virtual art gallery you can walk around and see the work on the walls. And we’ve even got two special online exhibitions for the special projects we did with our friends in Thailand and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

You can step into the exhibition wherever you are and be inspired and moved by the brilliant ideas of young people all over the world. 

It feels amazing to see it. But what feels even more amazing is how you have all responded. You’ve been out there looking at the art, sharing it, taking photos and telling us what you think. It’s great to know that the exhibition means so much to you all – that’s what it’s there for. 

Today is World Children’s Day (20th November) and it’s a day all about celebrating young people and advocating for the rights of the child. On this day in 1989 the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child with 54 articles covering all part of a child’s life – all equally important. On this day we remember that every child has the right to relax and play (Article 31) and the right to freedom of expression (Article 13) and the right to be safe from violence (Article 19) and the right to education (Article 28.) 

The global exhibition celebrates and not only exercises these rights but shouts proudly, and the ideas of young people can be seen by everybody today. We hope you all feel as amazing as we do. 

THANK YOU!