ARTISTIC children from a pre-school in Thornbury are celebrating their work going on display in a shop in the town.

Children and staff from the Rainbow Teddies Pre-School, who have been working with the new Young@Art community arts project, visited Celebration Fairs in Thornbury on Saturday, April 16 to view their work, a large multi-art media ‘Rainbow Teddy’ – the pre-school’s logo.

The Young@Art project, based at Celebration Fairs, was established to inspire local artists, and give them the opportunity to become involved in commercial art and crafts.  

Having worked on decorating the teddy with Young@Art education co-ordinator Abi McManus during a morning and an afternoon session of the pre-school on Monday, March 7, working with two-and-a-half to four-year-olds to use a variety of materials to decorate the teddy.

Rainbow Teddies pre-school manager Nanda Lee said: “The children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in creating this wonderful collage of colour, texture and form.

“They were excited to see their teddy at the shop, and pointed out what bit they had decorated to their parents, who saw the teddy for the first time on Saturday.

“I first heard about the shop, and how they support local artists by showcasing and selling their work, when I popped in to buy a gift and got chatting to James, the shop’s owner.

“As we are always looking for ways to bring exciting learning opportunities to the children I was able to liaise with Abi, through James.”

James Brewer, owner of Celebration Fairs, said: “We are so keen to encourage youngsters to become involved and realise their potential in all aspects of art - even from a really early age.”

The next Young@Art event is a nature and agriculture themed art competition in June, in conjunction with the Thornbury Carnival Fringe.  

More details and application forms can be obtained from Celebration Fairs, on St Mary's St, Thornbury.  For more information contact Abi McManus on 07815 117832.