BRIGHT SPARKS’ IDEAS GO ON DISPLAY
Quirky inventions thought up by Wearside children are to feature in exhibitions at home and away.
The objects, including a lamp on wheels, a war avoider and a family scooter, started life in 2015 when artist and designer Dominic Wilcox returned to his home city for the Inventors! project, which challenged 450 children from across the city to come up with their own weird and wonderful designs.
Since then a number of the inventions from resulting workshops have been chosen to be made into real objects by local makers, which have captured the attention of gallery curators.
From Saturday, a number of the inventions and sketches will be on display at the Museum and Winter Gardens. Meanwhile, the V&A in London has also acquired five of the inventions which will join the Design, Architecture and Digital department’s collection of objects that tell stories about design and public life today.
Gabriel Coates, ten, a pupil at Richard Avenue Primary School, is one of those chosen to have their invention brought to life for the Winter Garden exhibition.
Year 5 leader Claire Willis said: “The Little Inventors team came into school and did a workshop, which really inspired the kids to come up with their own ideas.
“Gabriel’s was the only one from the school chosen to be made and it’s a brilliant idea. It started as a remote control lamp so he could read in bed at night time, but it’s become like a remoteEasington controlled car with a changing coloured light too.”
The five inventions acquired by the V&A are The Liftolator (War Avoider) by Charlotte Scott; The Super Fast Tennis Ball by Kai Rowntree; The Family Scooter by Wendy Ridley; The Hi-Five Machine by Oliver and The Shady Lamp by Layla Amir.
Former St Aidan’s pupil Dominic, who has had work displayed at some of the world’s most prestigious galleries, said: “This is such a great honour for everyone involved in the project, it was a fantastic collaborative effort between the brilliant children and the enthusiastic and skilful adult makers of Sunderland.
“Importantly it sends a powerful message to all children that their amazing imaginations can lead to great things. This great honour will inspire us to take Little Inventors to even more children around the world.”
The results of the first project, commissioned by The Cultural Spring, were shown in a pop-up exhibition in Fawcett Street in January 2016.
“Amazing imaginations can lead to great things” DOMINIC WILCOX