Notting Hill Carnival 2018: Artwork by children affected by Grenfell Tower blaze to take price of place in parade

Adebola Lamuye7 November 2018

Poignant drawings created by children affected the Grenfell Tower blaze will take pride of place on a float at Notting Hill carnival.

Local artist and musician Fiona Hawthorne, who is known for her distinctive line-and-wash style drawings, has been running art sessions with children, whose work will be used on her charity’s steel-band float.

The children were asked to paint what carnival meant to them following last year’s tragedy which claimed 72 lives as a therapeutic outlet.

The workshop is supported by Children at the Curve, a Grenfell support group.

Year three, four and five pupils from Oxford Gardens and Thomas Jones primary school were among the participants.

Artwork by Fiona Hawthorne
Fiona Hawthorne

Ms Hawthorne, 54, was born in Northern Ireland but raised in Hong Kong. At 20, she moved to Notting Hill, working as a reportage artist capturing the emerging London jazz scene.

Children's artwork due to feature in Notting Hill carnival

She later began working with the Fox Carnival Band - a charity that aimed to increase local children’s involvement at carnival through art and creating their own Carnival Mas Band. It is now known as the Urban Fox Orchestra (UFOs).

Artwork by children affected by Grenfell Tower fire

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The band will be one of hundreds that will perform during Europe’s biggest street festival this Sunday, with over a million revellers predicted to attend the event.

The artist, who is now based in Shepherd’s Bush, said she was inspired to get involved as she wanted to get children to be creative in a time when she believed it was not being encouraged in school.

Speaking to the Standard, she said: “I found it quite surprising that there were a lot of local children who had nothing to do with carnival. With schools lack of funding and time in the curriculum, it’s a challenge keeping the arts in but carnival is a great way of doing that because of the generosity of carnivalists like myself.

“They’re all very generous with sharing their time and their skills and as a result carnival provides a lot of the outside art that are sort of brought into schools.”

She added: “Personally I think you can teach everything under the curriculum through carnival.”

The artist, who is married to James Bond actor and carnival musician Colin Salmon, shared the impact her first carnival experience had on her.

She said: “The area came alive and there was this collective of joy. The area transformed into a sort of freedom, bringing about a reclaim of the streets and celebrating the best of human beings coming together. I had been to street parades before but I had never seen anything quite like that.”

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