Special needs pupils show talent for art

Special needs pupils from Norfolk are showing some promising artistic talent in an exhibition at the Fred Nicholson School in Dereham.

Special needs pupils from Norfolk are showing some promising artistic talent in an exhibition at the Fred Nicholson School in Dereham.

The displays showcase the talents of children and teenagers with a wide range of disabilities and needs from Sheringham Wood Fields School, Eaton Hall in Norwich, Elm Road at Thetford, Sidestrand Hall School, Ethel Tipple at King's Lynn and Harford Manor School.

Youngsters with a variety of special needs and disabilities produced the art often displayed alongside pictures of its creators at work.

Students had worked around the theme of colour, making everything from Chinese plates to dragon's heads and Aboriginal monuments, even producing their own ambient music to add to the atmosphere of the exhibition.

James Watson was very pleased with his contribution to the exhibition.

The teenager spent hours painting his Aboriginal tube, a model of those used by Aborigines in which they placed the bones of the dead before transferring them to a hollow tree.

He said: "I'm going to take it home after the exhibition. I might put it in my bedroom."

His art teacher Herbert Knights, the organiser of the exhibition, said: "There is a certain therapeutic value to art for the pupils.

"We have exhibitions from around nine schools here. We had to put it back from April because we had so much interest from schools.

"We are really pleased with it, and really proud of the students.

"We just want lots of people to come to see it."

The exhibition runs at the Fred Nicholson School until July 21 and is open to the public.