Colourful umbrellas come with important message
AN ART installation perfectly placed for typical Welsh summer weather has been installed over an iconic street in the centre of Cardiff.
Church Street has been transformed with the addition of hundreds of brightly coloured umbrellas – to raise awareness of an important cause.
The capital is just one of many cities around the UK chosen by the Neurodiversity Umbrella Project to install what they describe as “an uplifting visual representation of all the different minds we have here in the UK”.
Every Umbrella Project installation helps to raise awareness and understanding of neurodiversity. Thousands of colourful umbrellas are strung together over public spaces, in schools, in company buildings and on main streets.
Each display is designed to represent the one in five of us who have a neurodevelopmental condition, such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or Tourette’s syndrome.
The project team said: “These conditions fall under the umbrella term of neurodiversity. We are changing the perception of neurodiverse/neurodivergent people and celebrating all the many strengths that come from thinking differently.”
The street, right in the heart of the city centre, links High Street with Trinity Street and has St John the Baptist City Parish Church towering over it.
The new installation has been a welcome addition, with the owners of the Old Arcade pub saying: “What a fabulous addition to an already amazing Church Street.”
Shopper Judith Williamson said: “It looks stunning. I turned the corner into High Street and it took my breath away. It is great that it is is raising awareness for great causes.”
Schools are also being urged to get involved by creating their own mini umbrella displays.
Dr Tony Lloyd, chief executive of the ADHD Foundation, said: “Through this Umbrella Project, we can celebrate all the strengths and abilities of neurodiverse people. One in five of us are neurodiverse – we must stop thinking of those with dyslexia, autism, ADHD, dyspraxia as somehow ‘less than’ or defining them by what they cannot do.
“That 19th-century concept of intelligence and ability has no place in the 21st century – the major growth companies in the world who have actively recruited neurodiverse employees for over 20 years recognise the extraordinary creativity and ability of a neurodiverse workforce.
“We want everyone to see what global leading industries see – talent, potential and creative genius.
“‘I can’ is more important than ‘IQ’. More than 13 million UK citizens are neurodiverse – it’s about time we see them in the deserving positive light of neurodiversity.”