Model students
Ching Lok-yi concentrates as she puts the finishing touches to a model made out of Wetland Park clay.
Lok-yi, 11, from Kwong Ming Ying Loi School, Yuen Long, was one of 500 pupils from 15 schools near the Tin Shui Wai conservation park taking part in a community art project titled 'My Soil, My Land'.
The day of clay was the culmination of a series of school-based activities and workshops at Wetland Park aimed at familiarising pupils with their natural environment and stimulating community spirit. The project, organised jointly by the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wan Chai and the park, used Wetland clay with pupils making models from a list of 10 themes.
Programme director Connie Lam Suk said although the practical side of the project was art-based it also had a social aim: 'There are many broken families in the Tin Shui Wai area and we believe strongly that art can transform society. It is very important to bring joy to the community.'
Ms Lam said the art would be fired into ceramic models, with the pupils invited back to the park on December 20 for a demonstration of the hardening process in a pit fire.
Wetland Park manager Sunny Chow Wing-sun said the project had been 'very innovative' and she hoped there would be further collaboration with the arts centre, possibly making the activity an annual event.
The 500 models are due to be exhibited at the park early next year.
