A five-year-old artist’s “explosion of colourful balloons” wowed judges looking for a cover image for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival programme.
Emmanuel Famakinwa from Robert Gordon’s College won the north-east heat of the national school-based contest.
His design will now be displayed as part of a special free exhibition at Dynamic Earth in the capital from June 6 to August 28, alongside 13 other regional winners, the three winning designs and more than 150 others that made the shortlist.
The competition is one of Scotland’s longest-running arts outreach projects. This year, 238 classes from 187 schools across Scotland entered the competition with over 5,500 pupils submitting entries.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the fringe festival, the competition’s top prize offered the next generation of artists the opportunity to design the cover of the official Fringe Programme and, for the first time, schoolchildren were encouraged to submit their entries in any art form of their choice, such as photography, poetry, digital creations, sculptures, illustrations, paintings and print work, giving them the freedom to express their ideas and explore their creativity.
The competition was judged by an expert panel, with representatives from Education Scotland, City of Edinburgh Council, Dynamic Earth, the Fringe Society, Whitespace, Virgin Money as well as the competition’s champion artist, Jon Bishop a.k.a The Grey Earl.
Mr Bishop said of Emmanuel’s entry: “Creativity is something to be celebrated and nurtured both in school and throughout life. Emmanuel’s entry is an explosion of colourful balloons and at the heart of it is a happy Fringe-goer, clearly having a good time at this wonderful festival.”
Shona McCarthy, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: “The variety of ideas and different creative techniques we received from across Scotland were truly inspiring. It’s wonderful to see so much creativity which made it incredibly difficult for the judging panel to select the winners. The Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival and the greatest platform on earth for creative freedom – it presents a wonderful opportunity for schoolchildren across Scotland to learn about, and to engage in, the arts and the creative industries.”
