Shoebox Art
These images are from an exhibition called . It opens on Thursday and features lots of shoebox bedrooms made by artists.
They are either replicas of their childhood bedrooms or contain allusions to their state of mind at the time. The artists are well-known.
You can buy one at or you can just go and look at them.
There are also some shoebox bedrooms on show by artists who are not at all famous. They have been created by young people who have been or are being helped by the charity . It's for them that the artists have made their shoebox bedrooms and to them that all the proceeds will go.
These young people have had a tough start to life, a fact that is apparent when you look at their shoeboxes and the accompanying texts. You would have to be made out of stone not to be moved.
• Interview with Kids Company's Camila Batmanghelidjh on the 91Èȱ¬'s Belief programme
• Shoebox Art discussed on Radio 4's Midweek
An arts journal by 
Comment number 1.
At 16th Mar 2010, ScotsSevensNutjob wrote:This is a beautiful use of art, across the spectrum. More please. Less of the tired modernism rubbish.
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Comment number 2.
At 16th Mar 2010, trueblue wrote:Those last two are very sad.
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Comment number 3.
At 16th Mar 2010, CComment wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 4.
At 16th Mar 2010, Adrian wrote:From professional artists, not very interesting.
From neglected children, they open windows into sad worlds that we cannot imagine, but must try to change.
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Comment number 5.
At 16th Mar 2010, ghostofsichuan wrote:the art world goes in circles..very seldom does anyone break out and provide something new and exciting. There are real people living in boxes, but not as nice as these...even the sad ones.
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Comment number 6.
At 16th Mar 2010, Dan wrote:In relation to the "professional" ones, they'd have to pay me to dispose of them before I would take them. As for the ones by the kids, I would pay all that I could just to make sure that they got them back.
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Comment number 7.
At 16th Mar 2010, Neil McChrystal wrote:@Adrian - Perhaps this is less about the artists being interesting and more about them being interested. If the money raised from their pieces can help bring about some change in these children's lives then it's a splendid endeavour indeed.
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Comment number 8.
At 17th Mar 2010, ian-russell wrote:That has to be one of the most infuriating online galleries I've come across in a while. It's like a cock-eyed duck shoot! Can you imagine that idea catching on in the National? Like trying to choose fast sushi.
Okay, some of those professional shoeboxes are better than others. Some a lot better. Some of them are downright Blue Peter on Friday afternoon. I think I agree with Adrian and I see Dan's point of view. Neil, I'm sure you're right too but it's a funny looking dance everyone's asked to perform just to give these poor children a smile.
The children's work is something else. Profound. I wonder which idea came first, the children's or the pros'.
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Comment number 9.
At 19th Mar 2010, Kate Day wrote:More art like this!
I've been working on a secondary school speaking and listening project at Manchester Museum with an artist called Naomi Kendrick who's interested in multi-sensory installations. We've used making art as a way of developing the year 7 and 8 students' speaking and listening skills. Then we worked with another artist, Matt George, to animate the spaces (or boxes). We described the boxes as 'sketch boxes' which could contain information and be added to.
See here for more details:
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Comment number 10.
At 14th Mar 2011, U14813136 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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