A pupil at St Gregory’s Catholic Primary School in Ealing is the winner in the 8-11 year old category of the Fourth Plinth Schools Awards 2023. The annual competition invites all London schoolchildren aged 5 to 15 to create artwork inspired by the contemporary art commissions for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Gennaro from St Gregory’s Catholic Primary School called the artwork Stop It!.
Gennaro explained: “I have designed an entry called ‘Stop It!’. It talks about global warming. The pot is on the stove and it’s about to boil. The pot represents the world. Most importantly, the Arctic and Antartica, which are melting. The finished statue will have a hidden pipe and steam outlet, so when people look at it, it will actually look like it’s hot.”
The winning artworks will be displayed in an exhibition at City Hall until 2 June 2023.
Andria Zafirakou, winner of the 2018 Global Teacher Prize, and Justine Simons OBE, deputy mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, announced the winners.
Andria Zafirakou said: “What a treat! How wonderful it has been to be involved as a judge in this year’s Fourth Plinth School Awards and to see the incredible artwork and talent that is pouring out of our classrooms. As always, the quality of ideas, imagination and standards of creativity have been inspirational. Congratulations to all the young people who took part and to my teacher colleagues for helping to make it happen.”
Justine Simons OBE, said: “Young Londoners have again been flexing their creative muscles and showing what incredible talent we have in this city, as part of the Fourth Plinth schools awards. Art in schools is so vital – it grows imagination and empathy and builds the essential skills we need for life and for work. I’m really proud that so far we have had 30,000 entries from school children for the awards and I hope one day to see one of these budding artists showing their work on the Fourth Plinth as we continue to build a better and fairer London for everyone.”
More than 2,000 schoolchidlren too part this year including 20 from Ealing.
View all the Ealing entries
