Rivers of the World 2021

Afienya D A Basic School with Bright Ackwerh: Students repurposed old cardboard boxes to create an installation depicting a dystopian vision of how the Volta River is being taken over by businesses.

Old Ningo D A Basic A School with Bright Ackwerh: Students highlighted several activities that contribute to the pollution of their river. They shared a story about their local river, the Djange River, who they have depicted looking unhappy.

Mataheko D A Basic A School with Bright Ackwerh: This artwork celebrates an other-worldly power that is characterised in many indigenous festivals observed by communities situated along the Volta River.

Dawhenya Basic School with Bright Ackwerh: Students used the calabash as a canvas to visualize and portray the importance of local rivers in their various communities.

St Joseph’s Anglican 1 Basic School with Bright Ackwerh: Through conversations about the importance of rivers in the development of town settlements, students reimagined their ideal city around a river.

Dawa Presby Basic School with Bright Ackwerh: Inspired by the theme River of Life, students centred their work on the importance of rivers as the ultimate source for living organisms.

Ras Beirut Mixed Public High School with Joe Khachan and Noel Keserwany: The students researched their partner river, the River Tees in the UK. From their findings they created stories which contained many characters.

Zahya Kaddoura High School with Joe Khachan and Noel Keserwany: This artwork is based on the River Tees. Students researched the causes of pollution and made stories with characters.

Omar Farroukh High School with Joe Khachan and Noel Keserwany: The students took part in a storytelling and character design workshop, they then developed stories which were illustrated.

Jamil Al Rawass High School with Joe Khachan and Noel Keserwany: The students developed their storytelling skills which they then used to create fantastical tales based on the River Tees.

Riad El Solh High Mixed Public School with Joe Khachan and Noel Keserwany: Students learned about the River Tees and wrote story ideas with fantasy characters.

Boston High School with Emily Cartwright: Students used paper-cutting to create a town scene, which was then decorated and photographed with gold and silver objects.

Boston Grammar School with Emily Cartwright: Using the theme Resourceful River, students chose to focus primarily on the important trade history of Boston.

Giles Academy, Boston High School with Emily Cartwright: The students focused on maps, looking at the whole length of the River Witham. They made their own maps using collagraph printmaking and collage techniques.

William Lovell C of E Academy with Emily Cartwright: Using the theme River Culture the students listened to river inspired music and looked at stained glass windows, referencing their school.

Thomas Cowley High School with Emily Cartwright: The workshop focused on the life of Lincolnshire people and old folk tales from the Fens. The students created paper-cut illustrations based on an old story called The Dead Moon.

Haven High Academy with Emily Cartwright: The students made their artwork using 100% reclaimed materials and rubbish as a way of highlighting the issues around river pollution.

Corley Centre with Colin Yates: Students created a selection of wonderful clay sculptures reflecting the animals that live in and around the River Ruvu in Tanzania.

Woodfield School with Colin Yates: Students looked at the wildlife of the River Ruvu and created sculptures using wire, aluminum foil and air-drying clay.

Baginton Fields School with Colin Yates: Using air drying clay and vibrant colours found in Tanzania, the students made fabulous clay sculptures of the wildlife that can be found around the river.

Riverbank Academy with Colin Yates: Students made colourful clay sculptures of the animals that live around the River Ruvu.

Sherbourne Fields with Colin Yates: Students represented the marvellous wildlife of the River Ruvu through clay sculptures that were then painted using acrylic paints.

Zinga Secondary School with Ernest Mtaya: Students were inspired by the invertebrates found in the River Sherbourne. They are seen flying or crawling and include insects whose survival depends on water or mud along the river.

Pugu Secondary with Ernest Mtaya: Students researched and then created charcoal drawings of the different bird species that can be seen around the River Sherbourne.

Kikaro Secondary with Ernest Mtaya: Students focused their research on the historical use of the River Sherbourne and made drawings to reflect the activities that once took place.

Dunda Secondary with Ernest Mtaya: The students joined hands with the residents of Coventry and used logos and slogans to show the importance of protecting the River Sherbourne.

Jangwani Secondary with Ernest Mtaya: Students explored the different structures, such as bridges and roads, that can be found around the River Sherbourne. They made colourful drawings from their findings.

St Mary Magdalene C of E School with Shona Watt: Students worked up self-portraits with mixed media and text creating visual references to identity, their lives in Greenwich, and their interests.

Plumstead Manor School with Shona Watt: Students explored the history of the Cutty Sark, the celebrated ship designed to bring tea from China to England. Using an embossing technique, they created medals illustrating images of their chosen tea names.

Newhaven School with Shona Watt: Students explored glamorous Greenwich, dirty Deptford and the pirates of pizazz to create their artworks.

Eltham Hill School with Shona Watt: The practice of sailor’s sweetheart valentine pin cushions were a craze by 1820 that would last through the Victorian Era. Students made cushions based on Greenwich.

Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys with Shona Watt: A less familiar source of pollution, fat, became common knowledge in 2019. Students used collage to explore the horrors of the fatberg, fast food and the negative effects of non-biodegradable materials on our sewers.

The Halley Academy with Shona Watt: Students learnt about one of the largest pollutants in the Thames, plastic. They created river and sea creatures that had undergone a metamorphosis, transforming into something rich and strange.

Gunnersbury Catholic School with Shona Watt: Students explored the theme River Culture. They investigated the parade of the Onam Harvest Festival in Kerala and made masks.

Bolder Academy with Shona Watt: Students examined the recurring symbols in Hindu sculpture as seen on the many temples on the banks of the River Karamana in Trivandrum.

The Green School for Girls with Shona Watt: Girls worked with coloured rice, pressed flowers and real flowers to create their own unique flower Rangoli designs.

The Heathland School with Shona Watt: Students created their own ‘sacred cow’ masks using card and embellished them with mixed media.

Brentford School for Girls with Shona Watt: Students collaborated to design and make three-dimensional devotional head pieces from recycled metal, gold foil and mixed media.

Woodbridge Park Education Service with Shona Watt: Students made mixed media three-dimensional flora and fauna examining the theme River of Life.

Tarun Madhyamik Vidhyalaya School with Kailash K Shrestha: In the tree, each leaf illustrates a different yet sustainable economic activity that is possible because of rivers in the parts of Nepal they represent as a group.

Arunima Secondary School, Kathmandu, Nepal with Kailash K Shrestha: To represent the connection between pollution, identity and the river, students used their own image covered with a mask created from plastic consumer waste.

Kathmandu Euro School, Kathmandu, Nepal with Kailash K Shrestha: Students researched rivers both abundant with life and ones that flow through the urban centre of the country.

John Dewey H.S. School with Kailash K Shrestha: Students decided to explore the idea of legacy when depicting their city, the artwork aims to illustrate folklores recounted to the students by their grandparents about the rivers and the city that lives by them.

Little Flowers Public School with Kailash K Shrestha: Students decided to apply the motif of the mandala to represent water eco-systems as universal blueprints, a base for civilisation.

Jagat Mandir Secondary School, Kathmandu, Nepal with Kailash K Shrestha: Every drop of water counts. Students represented their own rivers and the resources they provide to support economic activities, not just for local communities but for the entire nation.

Govt. Higher Secondary School, Karamana Girls with Leeza John: Mudlarks scour the Thames foreshore to find well preserved objects amidst the mud of its riverbed.

Govt. Higher Secondary School, Aruvikkara with Leeza John: Reimagined as a filthy old man during the ‘Great Stink’ of the 1850s, Dirty Father Thames, reflected a time when the river Thames was at its most polluted.

Govt. Higher Secondary School, Karamana Boys with Leeza John: There are around 30 bridges across the river Thames, each wonderfully different and distinct. This artwork creates a glossary of the bridges through line drawings and paper cut-outs.

Govt. Higher Secondary School, Aryanad with Leeza John: This artwork reflects the daily water consumption in an average London home, where each water droplet reflects 1% of water used.

Govt. Higher Secondary School, Ayilam with Leeza John: The artwork explores the different species of fish that inhabit the River Thames, highlighting their body types and other physical characteristics.

Govt. Higher Secondary School, Neyyardam with Leeza John: Who doesn’t like greenery? This artwork, made using a variety of leaves, celebrates the Holly Man and his foliage-covered garb.

Broadgreen International School with Hector Dyer: Students approached the theme River Culture through tourism, looking at how Liverpool might change in the years to come.

Cardinal Heenan High School with Adam Sadiq: Using the theme River Economy, the students were encouraged to explore the contemporary identity of Liverpool as a port city

Broughton Hall Catholic High School with Adam Sadiq: Using The Power of Water as their theme, students learnt about the journey of the River Mersey. The artwork evokes themes of nature, the water cycle and ecology.

Bellerive FCJ Catholic College with Hector Dyer: Students researched the adaptive qualities of salt marsh, which grows around the River Mersey. They thought about how the characteristics of salt marsh are present in their own lives and made their own inner worlds.

Woodchurch High School with Adam Sadiq: Students explored the notion of reconciliation to both the past and future by responding to a poem by Langston Hughes: The Negro speaks of Rivers.

The Belvedere Academy with Hector Dyer: Students traced the history of industry on the River Mersey alongside the global fashion industry today. The final artwork responds to the idea of 'pollution and solution'.

Sanyathi Baptist High School with Eugene Mapondera: Students depicted various forms of aquatic life which can be found in and around the Munyati River.

Munyati ZESA High School with Eugene Mapondera: The large blue circles in this artwork represent the flowing river, within them are depicted traditional beliefs such as a person practicing a ritual by the river.

Rimuka 2 High School with Eugene Mapondera: Through the depiction of a fisherman and the inclusion of Kapents, the students are highlighting one of the principal activities that take place along the banks of the river.

Rimuka 1 High School with Eugene Mapondera: Students made miniature landscapes showing the various economic and social benefits derived from the Munyati River.

Jameson High School with Eugene Mapondera: This work depicts the impact that the coal powered hydroelectric power station, situated near the Munyati River, has on the environment.

Kwekwe High School with Eugene Mapondera: Students created miniature landscapes to represent the infrastructure built around the river such as bridges, schools, the power station and roads.

High Tunstall College of Science with BloomInArt: Students experimented with textile processes, exploring traditional skills which were often passed down through generations in Lebanese culture.

Teesside High School with BloomInArt: Students studied plans for the revival of the Beirut River. Whilst experimenting and exploring maps and river flow, students identified the shape of a face which influenced much of their work and final design.

Acklam Grange School with BloomInArt: Students took inspiration from Lebanese artist Lamia Loreige whose work uncovers the different facets of Beirut’s River with its recent and rapid transformations.

Northfield School & Sports College with BloomInArt: Students were inspired by the passion and celebration of Beirut's Vardavar Festival and explored various printing processes to capture the essence, celebration, expressive forms and movement associated with the event.

Rye Hills Academy with BloomInArt: Students wanted to raise awareness of the pollution that directly impacts the ecology of the river and highlight our responsibility to reduce single use plastic.