Words of Kindness: Derry pupils join artist to present poetry and linocut exhibition at Central Library

The ‘Words of Kindness’ project was the brainchild of teacher and artist Ade Newton, who joined the students, parents and teachers and invited guests at the exhibition launch on Monday night.

Twenty students, five from each of the participating schools, submitted poems on the theme of kindness and what kindness means to them.

Mr Newton then undertook to encapsulate their words, thoughts and feelings of the pupils in a series of individual linocut art works.

The poems were read aloud at the launch before the students’ work and accompanying art works were unveiled at the library.

Each of the primary and secondary school participants from St Cecilia’s College, Ardnashee College, Ballougry Primary School and Gaelscoil Eadain Mhoir will also receive their poem and illustration mounted and framed.

Explaining how the project started Mr Newton, who is currently teaching at Ardnashee College, told the Journal: “It came about during lockdown two years ago. I wasn’t working at the time. I was home schooling and my eldest daughter Ella had a project to write a poem on the theme of The Night. She wrote this poem about a ghost train going through the night sky and as she wrote it I started visualising her words and I thought it would be great to do a linocut print, as I specialise in linocuts, to go along with the poem. I printed it for her and put it along with her poem and then I had the idea that it would be great if I could illustrate for a group of children’s poems from different schools.”

Then around November last year an opportunity presented itself when Mr Newton heard that the Arts Council NI were offering grants to individual artists impacted by the pandemic to engage with the community.

“I applied to that and submitted the idea. I knew I couldn’t do too many as it takes a long time to produce linocuts. I thought I could do 20,” he recalls.

A diverse range of schools were engaged and came onboard, with St Cecilia’s College a natural fit due to its creative writing group, while Gaelscoil Eadain Mhoir pupils submitted their poems as gaeilge with an English translation. Ballougry Primary School submitted poems from its Primary 6 and 7 pupils, with Ardnashee completing the line-up. “Just after I applied for the grant I started sub teaching in Ardnashee and I thought it would be great to include some of the pupils there as well,” Mr Newton said.

Mr Newton said current events and also his experience teaching at Ardnashee helped inform the theme of kindness. “I just thought that with what everyone has been through and what’s going on in the world that kindness was the right theme. In Ardnashee, the first time I went there I realised how kind everybody was to me and how kindness played such a big role in putting a positive message across and in supporting wellbeing.”

The poetry produced by all the students involved was very impressive, he adds. “Children can be such an inspiration. Their thoughts of kindness are so genuine and so heartfelt and I also liked that they thought about kindness in different ways: things like Climate Change, how kindness made them feel and how they felt when they were kind to others, and how we can be kind to others in the world today; inclusiveness, and looking out for their friends and family. I also liked the different types of poems and styles they explored as well.”

Mr Newton has been producing woodcuts and linocuts for over decade and the process starts, he explains, with a drawing which is then carved into a piece of wood or lino. “You never really know how it is going to come out until you put ink on it and take that first print. I love the element of surprise. I like the way once you have done the carving you can print off as many as you like and each one is different and has its own marks. I really like colour ones because you work in layers and you build it up one layer at a time.”

With such an intricate process, producing 20 such artworks was always going to be a challenge but Mr Newton said it was one he very much enjoyed.

Reflecting on the project ahead of the launch, he added: “It made me think about my own actions doing all this work on kindness. We’re all a work in progress and kindness isn’t always easy. I’m no better than anyone else but I think kindness is about patience and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. It’s about turning the other cheek sometimes because you never know what someone else is going through.

“Children can be great teachers themselves. Working with them I have learned so much myself.”

The free to visit ‘Words of Kindness’ exhibition runs at the Central Library on Foyle Street until next Wednesday, April 13.