Portraits from the collection of the FLOW International Drawing Competition and texts written by children to accompany the pictures.

For 56 years, the FLOW International Drawing Competition has received pictures from children and young people from all over the world, which are juried, awarded prizes and shown in a large exhibition. There are always portraits that impress and move. Some show the young artists themselves, others family members, best friends or even the teacher. Some of these portraits show so much that anyone with a little imagination can think of a story to tell. Who is in the picture? Where and how might they live? What are their dreams?

A selection of these pictures was shown in the Leverkusen City Library in January 2022. Before and during the exhibition, children and young people were asked to write down their thoughts on the portraits to be exhibited together with the pictures. Because stories are told in a library. Some texts written by children from Schwedt and Leverkusen were presented in Leverkusen. But a large part was written during a workshop with class 5e of the Lise-Meitner-Gymnasium in Leverkusen. As Schwedt/Oder and Leverkusen are particularly connected through a town twinning, the unusual joint project is to be shown here.

Thanks go to the Leverkusen City Library for the good cooperation and to the City of Schwedt/Oder, the City Museum and the Schwedt Town Twinning Association for supporting the project.