CatholicTT kids participate in Synod art event

I dream of church being…’ was the open-ended statement participants in the Synod art exhibit 2022–2023 reflected on to come up with their creative expressions.

The People’s Choice based on votes on Facebook went to: Anna Leigh Tom, Maya Vialva, and Amara Sennon. They were in the 10–12 years category.

View eligible submissions HERE

Tom, 11 years of St Gabriel’s Girls’ RC, San Fernando used her parents’ wedding theme ‘Together we can do something beautiful for God’ as the title of her painting.

“The open hands mean welcoming people and the closed fist represented was uniting of all the races,” she said about her concept.

Tom’s was a last-minute submission. She was so busy she forgot, so the day before the deadline, she hurriedly prepared something. Tom likes art, particularly painting. She said, “I can express myself in different colours.”

Vialva, a Standard Four pupil of St Brigid’s Girls’ RC, Siparia came up with the idea for her art piece after discussion with her teacher and friends about how they felt about church.

“Then I decided what I dreamt of church being like and drew the symbols to match.” It took two hours to create. Vialva said she enjoys art because it is calming and fun.

Sennon, 10 years, also of St Brigid’s, created a Spoken Word video for her submission. In it she says, “I dream of church being a place where everybody could come together as one, and sing and dance, and just sing praises onto God.”

She would like to see a church where there is no gossip, confusion, racism, and separation. “I dream of church being a place where families and friends could come, and they will drink and make jokes with each other and laugh sincerely with each other.”

She ended stating her dream of church as “a place where I can call my home, sweet home”.