Over 200,000 children created self portraits, projecting their images onto the front of Buckingham Palace as part of Face Britain.  Now we are inviting you to bid for your favourite artist or celebrities self portrait in our unique eBay and Christie’s auctions taking place in May.  All of the proceeds will support our projects, meaning you could recieve a unique piece of artwork and also enable disadvantaged children throughout the UK to engage with the arts.

eBay Celebrity Auction

Between the 3rd and the 13th May you will be able to bid for an exclusive celebrity self portrait via eBay.  You could pick up an original self portrait by Jamie Oliver, Adele, Amanda Holden, Nick Park, The Wanted, Derren Brown, Fearne Cotton or Ronnie Wood (plus many more)!  There are almost 50 different celebrity self portraits in the auction.

Bid for a celebrity self portrait now at ebay.co.uk/facebritain

View all of the Face Britain celebrity self portraits avaliable on eBay.

Christie’s Gala Dinner & Auction

Self portraits created by well known artists will be auctioned at the Face Britain Gala Dinner & Auction at Christie’s, King Street, SW1 on 9th May. Amongst the artists whose works will be featured in the auction are Tracey Emin, Sir Peter Blake, Ryan Gander, Maggi Hambling, Colin Self, Angela de la Cruz and Mary McCartney.

A few remaining tables (£2,500 for a table of ten) and a limited number of places (£250 each) are available at this unique event. Guests will also enjoy a performance by Tim Minchin, comedian and composer of the Olivier Award-winning ‘Matilda the Musical’, as part of the the evening.

View all of the Face Britain artists self portraits being auctioned at Christie’s.

If you would like to receive further information about the Christie’s Gala Dinner and Auction or to purchase tickets, please email rebecca.darke@childrenandarts.org.uk or call +44 (0)203 326 2233.  For information regarding absentee bidding please contact the Christie’s Client Service team on +44 (0)207 389 2658 or via email BidsUK@christies.com quoting Face Britain Charity Auction.

For the latest on the eBay auction, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  Good luck!

You can still catch this amazing projection by Ross Ashton, celebrating our young people’s creativity, on Friday 20th April and Saturday 21st April from 8:30pm until 11.15pm.

The images came together to form a very special montage portrait of HM the Queen to help celebrate the Diamond Jubilee.

Children from schools across the UK came to London to see Buckingham Palace used as a canvas for their self portraits.  The projection was launched by Blue Peter’s Helen Skelton and will feature on Blue Peter on 26 April.

We were extremely proud of the amazing projection and thanks must go to all our supporters who have helped make this project possible.

We’re also delighted with the fantastic press coverage that The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts has received as a result of the projection.  From local papers, to national TV, to press from Germany, Canada and America.

Please do continue to support The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts.  You can support our work with disadvantaged children across the UK, by visiting the support us pages on our website or donate £3 by texting Arts to 70007 (for mobile donations see terms and condition).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IUhrufGMnzw

If you’d like to see all of the self portraits visit the Face Britain online gallery, or for more photo’s from the projection go to our facebook page.  And please tell us what you think on twitter.  Stay tuned as in the next couple of weeks we’ll be creating a film of the event showing the projection in full.

Face Britain now culminates with an auction of self portraits by notable artists and celebrities.  There is full information about how you can bid for your favourite celebrity’s self portrait on our website.

Thanks again to everyone who has been involved in Face Britain

Over the past 6 months children from all over the UK have submitted self portraits to Face Britain’s online gallery, brought to life by PhotoBox.

From 19^th – 21^st April between 8.30pm – 11.30pm, the front of Buckingham Palace will act as a canvas to showcase their work. Each child’s portrait will form part of a very special montage image of HM The Queen, created by Ross Ashton to celebrate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Thursday 19^th April at 8.30pm sees the grand reveal of the projection, and promises to be a momentous occasion.  Come along to Buckingham Palace to see you face made famous!  The projection will be switched on by Blue Peter’s Helen Skelton and will be shown on Blue Peter next week.

Other locations

If you are not London based, the montage image of HM The Queen is also being shown on 18 BBC Big Screens and JCDecaux digital advertising screens across the UK.

For more information, see the Face Britain website.

As Face Britain reaches its climax we have two amazing auctions coming up allowing you to bid for an exclusive self-portrait created by one of our famous Face Britain supporters.

Celebrated artists and a number of celebrities from the world of music, TV and sport, have created self portraits for Face Britain to raise funds for the work of The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts. You can see the portraits in our online gallery.

Face Britain has been developed to give all children and young people aged 4-16 years throughout the UK the opportunity to create self portraits encouraging them to explore their creativity and to consider their own identity and place in history as part of the 2012 generation.

Celebrities

The wide variety of celebrity and sporting self portraits including those by Fearne Cotton, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Sir Geoff Hurst, Nick Park, The Wanted and a host of other famous names, will be auctioned on eBay between 3-13 May 2012.

Artists

Self portraits and donated artwork by established artists including Maggi Hambling and Tracey Emin will be auctioned at a live event at Christie’s, King Street, London on 9 May 2012.

View our online gallery of auction portraits and see if you are interested in bidding on any.

Sign up for updates

To receive updates about either of these auctions, please fill in the form below and we’ll contact you with details of how to take part.

The Portraits

The Face Britain Patrons who have created self portraits for auction are as follows:
You can see the portraits in our online gallery.

Their Royal Highnesses, accompanied by Rick Wills, Chairman, Children & the Arts, and Ian Dejardin, The Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, met with school children participating in the Great Art Quest at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

The Duchess of Cambridge has a personal interest in the arts and supporting young children, and The Prince of Wales is taking this opportunity to show the successful educational work of Children & the Arts.

Great Art Quest, sponsored by investment managers GAM (UK) Ltd. introduces children to the visual arts by partnering them with local galleries, professional artists and storytellers and providing them with the skills and confidence to create their own works. Dulwich Picture Gallery is one of just four galleries selected by Children & the Arts to take part in Great Art Quest.

Over the last two terms 120 children, aged 8-11, from Goodrich Community School in East Dulwich, Langbourne Primary School, St Luke’s CofE Primary School in Dulwich, and the Globe Academy in Southwark have been working with a textile artist and a storyteller to create their own art based on Dulwich Picture Gallery’s collection of Old Master paintings. The project marries paintings, poems and songs with visual arts to encourage pupils to think about their own personal journeys and stories.

The series of creative sessions inspired the children to create an artistic response to the themes of family, identity and journey.

During their visit to the Gallery, Their Royal Highnesses spoke to the children, artists and storytellers involved with the project, and heard from the children’s teachers how the project has benefited their learning and personal development. Their Royal Highnesses were also invited to see a special exhibition of the children’s works introduced by the children themselves.

The Gallery’s chosen theme of family, identity and journey was inspired by Face Britain, the latest Children & the Arts project and the UK’s largest mass collaborative art project involving 4-16 year olds from right across the UK producing self-portraits. The self-portraits produced by the children as part of Great Art Quest will be combined with thousands of others to create a special montage image of HM The Queen that will be projected on to the front of Buckingham Palace in April to herald the start of the Diamond Jubilee and London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The portraits will also be displayed on the official London 2012 BBC Live Sites in city centres as well as over 400 screens in shopping centres and train stations across the UK.

Face Britain will also attempt to establish a new Guinness World Record for ‘the most artists working on the same art installation’.

Celebrated contemporary painter and sculptor, Maggi Hambling was introduced to Their Royal Highnesses as they toured the children’s works. Miss Hambling explained her involvement as a patron of Face Britain and discussed the purpose behind the project.

Our President, The Prince of Wales, is dedicated to giving young people the opportunity to discover their talents and to gain the self-esteem to use them. With that mission in mind we have been changing the lives of children for the past six years. This isn’t art for arts sake but a chance to engage with children at an early enough age so that they can use the arts as a way to develop skills, abilities and the confidence that will be of a practical and personal benefit to them throughout their lives.

Jeremy Newton, Chief Executive

As a gallery, we have a long-standing commitment to arts education and to helping young people access and engage in the arts. It was an honour to be selected by Children & the Arts as one of four host galleries for this year’s Great Art Quest. The valuable support gained as a participant in the project has enabled us to expand our Schools programme dedicated to providing opportunities for long-term, in-depth participation for high-quality creative outcomes. Over the last few months we have seen the impact the project has had on local children’s confidence and enthusiasm for the arts, and we are delighted to have been able to showcase their work to our Royal visitors.

Gillian Wolfe, Director of Learning and Public Affairs at Dulwich Picture Gallery

We have been supporting Children & the Arts’ Great Art Quest for four years and each year I have been able to see the positive impact it brings to those taking part. Great Art Quest is a vital development opportunity for young people which GAM is proud to sponsor.

CEO of GAM (UK) Ltd, Andrew Hanges

You can see more images on the Daily Mail website.

Their Royal Highnesses will meet school children participating in Great Art Quest, a project run by Children & the Arts, at Dulwich Picture Gallery on Thursday 15th March.  The Duchess of Cambridge has a personal interest in the arts and supporting young children, and The Prince of Wales is taking this opportunity to show the successful educational work His Foundation for Children & the Arts has been doing in London.

Great Art Quest introduces children from deprived areas of the UK to the visual arts by partnering schools with local galleries, professional artists and storytellers, and providing them with the skills and confidence to create their own work.  This is the fourth year Children & the Arts has run Great Art Quest, which is kindly sponsored by GAM (UK) Ltd.  Almost 500 children are taking part in Great Art Quest this year, 120 of these at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

As part of Great Art Quest, the children at Dulwich Picture Gallery have been creating self portraits which will form part of our collaborative art project, Face Britain.  These artworks will join thousands more self portraits by 4-16 year olds in the special Face Britain online gallery, and will ultimately be projected onto the front of Buckingham Palace.

Children & the Arts needs to raise over £1m each year.  Please visit our Support Us webpage to find out how you can help to transform the lives of children across the UK.

Read the full press release.

Led by Classic FM Managing Director, Darren Henley, the report aims to make the case “for ensuring that all children and young people in England, no matter what their background, circumstances or location, receive the highest quality Cultural Education both in school and out of school”.

Jeremy Newton, CEO of Children & the Arts, has written a initial response to the review in the Research and Opinion section of our website.

You can also read the full report and the government’s response here.  For more on Henley’s previous review, why not take a look at our article on the Review of Music Education in England, released in February 2011.

We will be publishing further reaction in the coming weeks and are keen to hear your thoughts.  Please let us know what you think by tweeting to @childrenandarts.

If you are interested in gaining work experience in arts management and the charity sector then please go to our Jobs pages to find out how you can get be a part of our Team here at Children & the Arts. To find out more about Face Britain please visit the Face Britain website.

Applications for this internship close on 9th March 2012.

This programme for primary and secondary schools focuses on inventive ‘upcycling’.  Children are encouraged to transform junk like empty cereal packs and broken plastic beads into craft, art and stylish, special things.

Furthermore, children can enter ‘Tip To Ship’ Start Imagining‘s competition with a top prize of a trip to London to see their winning boat exhibited at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.

Visit www.startimagining.co.uk for more information about their project

In Spotlight on Children & the Arts – Winter 2012 (3MB pdf), we hear from James Shenton from Octopus Investments about his own personal challenge for Children & the Arts, we hear how Face Britain is taking the UK schools by storm and an exciting announcement about our upcoming DanceQuest.