How children at one setting went about creating a sculpture garden. Annette Rawstrone reports.

An overarching theme of ‘empathy and otherness’ resulted in children from Little Barn Owls Nursery in Horsham, West Sussex spending a year exploring sculpture and ultimately designing their own sculpture garden.

‘We’re not afraid to look at big questions and consider life and what makes us human,’ says resident atelierista Dillon Howling. ‘Empathy is fundamental to building relationships. It is interesting to start looking at it from an artistic perspective.’

He showed the three- and four-year-olds examples of art, and while they initially described what was depicted, they soon started to read the emotions portrayed within the pictures. For example, Finlay said, ‘He’s standing on a ball with a box on his head. He’s doing a dance.’ And when asked how he thought the character felt, he replied, ‘Excited!’

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