HUNDREDS of primary school pupils have contributed to a unique art project to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum invited children from across the borough to create paintings and drawings celebrating the Queen’s historic reign to decorate a giant rugby ball sculpture.
The sculpture is set to be unveiled in the Swan Centre shopping precinct ahead of the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend (June 2-5), featuring 200 designs.
And an exhibition featuring all 1,000 paintings and drawings submitted for the project has now opened at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum’s Floor One Gallery.
The art project forms part of the art gallery and museum’s programme of events to celebrate the Jubilee.
On Saturday June 4, the venue hosts a catwalk show and tea party to celebrate the culmination of Tea Leaf Tales’ Hats Off! project, which secured funding from Arts Council England.
Tea Leaf Tales hosts a number of workshops at community venues in the town during May, where, inspired by Her Majesty’s well-documented passion for hats, participants can upcycle headwear to create hats fit for a Queen.
The monarch-inspired millinery takes to the catwalk outside Rugby Art Gallery and Museum from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.
A team from Rugby Art Gallery and Museum will join the council’s Play Rangers at a Community Fun Day organised by the Fareham Youth Partnership at GEC Recreation Ground on Saturday June 4.
In addition to arts and crafts workshops, the fun day includes family fun and games from 11am to 3pm.
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations also form part of the venue’s programme of half-term activities, which run from Saturday May 28 to Saturday June 4.
Throughout the week, visitors can hunt for a host of portraits of Her Majesty hidden throughout the Little Elborow Street venue, with participants who complete the hunt entered into a prize draw.
Rugby Borough Council’s leisure and wellbeing spokesman Coun Howard Roberts said: “We were hugely impressed by both the quantity and quality of paintings, drawings and designs submitted for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee art project, and we’re looking forward to unveiling the finished sculpture in the town centre ahead of the Jubilee bank holiday weekend.
“The council has organised and supported a wide range of events to mark the historic milestone of the The Queen’s 70 years on the throne, and we’re all looking forward to joining in the celebrations.”
The exhibition of primary school pupils’ Jubilee paintings runs at the Floor One Gallery until next Thursday (May 26).
Visit www.facebook.com/Tealeaf.Tales.Rugby for more information on Hats Off! workshops, and to book a place.
Visit www.ragm.co.uk/holiday-activities for more information on the half-term programme.
