Building Bridges is a wonderful annual project that brings together around 350 children from different backgrounds and communities across Pendle. The project creates opportunities for primary-school-aged children to make art, have meaningful conversations, and build connections with young people whose lives and experiences may be very different from their own.
Through craft and activism, we explored the themes of self-celebration and the things we value and want to celebrate about ourselves and our local area. Hearing about the experiences of other young people helped everyone to develop a greater understanding of different lives, perspectives and communities.
Together, we created a large 3D sculpture of Pendle Hill, made entirely from scrap fabric. Every young person involved contributed to the sculpture, helping to build something collectively that represents their community. The finished sculpture now has a permanent home in Nelson Library.
The project ended with a large public community intervention, inviting people from the local area to get involved. Participants were encouraged to add to the sculpture, make their own self-celebration badge, and spread positivity by shouting kind messages to strangers as they went about their daily lives.
The finished sculpture can be seen in the Children’s Library at Nelson Library, where it stands as a lasting celebration of the young people, their creativity and the community they helped to build.
