Dear Neighbour: Postcards from 2020

There wasn’t much of a chance to send postcards from holiday last year. So in the Autumn we invited all the children in Wandsworth aged 4-11 to make a postcard, collecting together their memories of 2020.
In response to the five steps of wellbeing developed by the New Economics Foundation, we asked children to draw a place, thing or person that became important to them over COVID-19, and encouraged them to focus on everyday and simple moments.

We received over 2200 postcards from Wandsworth children, and we’re busy collating them into a beautiful online gallery, celebrating all the work and creativity that’s gone into creating this snapshot of 2020.
Some of the artwork shows part of the area the children had never seen before, a toy that makes them feel safe, a TV show that makes them laugh or a neighbour who always smiles at them. By focusing on the everyday moments, the project aimed to encourage young people to take notice of the world around them and what they are feeling.
Dear Neighbour: My postcard of 2020 was led by Wandsworth Art Service in partnership with Wandsworth Archive and the postcard was been designed by artist Orly Orbach, with funding from A New Direction. In 2021 the postcards will join the Wandsworth Archive collection, helping to capture memories of COVID-19.