Sudbury art project asks children to think about changing the world

Kindergarten students and college students in Sudbury got together this week to collaborate on a unique art project.

The youngsters from Northeastern Elementary School were teamed up with Art and Design Fundamentals students from Cambrian College.

The college students engaged the kindergarten students in a pre-art-making discussion using the following question:

"If you could do something to change the world, what would you do?"

Cambrian teacher and local artist Johanna Westby said they wanted to ask a fairly broad question, so that they would get incredibly diverse answers.

"We got answers that ranged from the children [wanting] to change dogs and cats into all different colours, and make unicorns everywhere ... [to] even things to do with hunting and homelessness," she said. 

​The college students will use the kindergarten students' art as inspiration to create their own original works about how to change the world.

Working with the youngsters was a new experience for the college students.

"We decided that we wanted to work with children because they offer a level of imagination," Westby continued.

"Real, unbelievably imaginative and totally lateral thinking that we would expect. It is to expect the unexpected when you're working with children."

A gallery show of all the artwork is scheduled for May 11 at Sudbury's Open Studio.