FOUR teenage artists met Salford Mayors after having their artwork displayed on the front of Salford Civic Centre.

Buile Hill Visual Arts College, based on Eccles Old Road, was approached by the City Mayor, Paul Dennett, who asked the youngsters to create Christmas banners as he wanted to “celebrate the young people of Salford”.

Shauna Brophy, Lacey Kendall, Charlie Leigh, all aged 13, and Coral Burgess, 14, were joined by four other pupils from the school, along with art teacher, Louise Talbot.

Mayor Dennett and ceremonial Mayor Karen Garrido presented the students with certificates of achievement, and the group received a framed version of all the artwork.

Mayor Dennett said: “The banners are absolutely fantastic. They’re a really nice way of wishing the people of Salford a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

“It’s really important for us politically to invest in the young people and spend time with them.

“I was absolutely delighted when I saw the number of submissions and the quality of the submissions.

“It’s the start of something special.”

From a total of 18 submissions, four were chosen to be displayed on the front of the building.

After being given the task, the youngsters managed to turn the project around within 48 hours.

Art teacher, Louise Talbot, said: “We love getting involved with anything to do with the local community.

“We were made up to have been asked and our headteacher really supports things like this.”

Barry Pilkington of Urban Vision, which has sponsored the project, said: “There is so much young local talent in Salford and when approached, we were delighted to support the project.”

“The professionalism and creativeness of the artwork is outstanding.”

The banners are just over 1.2 metres  wide and 5.7 metres long and will stay in place until the new year.

Buile Hill Visual Arts College and Salford Council plan to collaborate on similar projects in the future.

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