Easter holidays: Children from around the world exhibit drawings about hope and COVID-19 in the windows of SMK

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Thousands of children from thirty-three different countries have drawn their hopes for the future in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The drawings will be on prominent display in the windows of #smk (Statens Museum for Kunst) over Easter.

SMK is temporarily closed to visitors. But this Easter, everyone is welcome to enjoy a special display in the windows at #smk when hundreds of children's drawings on the theme of hope and the pandemic are projected onto silk banners hung inside the museum's large expanses of glass. The drawings will be visible at night, when large parts of the building are lit up.

The initiative is launched by Viborg UNESCO Creative City under the hashtags # TegnHåb (DrawHope) and #Drawwithdenmark. For more than three decades, the city of Viborg has built up a creative scene for animation filmmaking and other visual forms of expression, and in early February the city translated this experience into a new project: they encouraged children to create drawings portraying their hopes for those children who are most vulnerable and at risk during the corona crisis.

Drawing as an international language
Soon, plenty of drawings flowed in from children from Danish kindergartens and schools. But when Viborg – as a UNESCO Creative City – shared information about the campaign with its international network, things really took off. So far, the initiative has received more than 3,100 drawings from children in thirty-three countries.

The drawings show some of the many different thoughts that pass through children's heads in these times of COVID-19 – from a hero fighting the coronavirus to scenes of elderly people standing alone, to a candle where hope for all the children in the world is outlined in the smoke rising from the flame.