dot-art Schools

The most exciting day of the dot-art Schools year, is approaching!

On 3rd June we celebrate all the young artists who submitted artwork from schools across Liverpool City region; with the shortlisted students, their families and teachers attending a special Prize Giving Ceremony in the magnificent Concert Room at St George's Hall, Liverpool.

The Year 5 and Year 9 students will be presented with certificates by the new Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Cllr William Shortall, our headline sponsor Springboard will make an inspiring speech then our guest judge Adele Darlington will announce the overall winners and runners up for each age group.

Afterwards the guests go over to The Walker Art Gallery to be the first visitors to enjoy the 14th annual dot-art Schools exhibition.
The exhibition is then open to the public from 4th June - 5th July.

Congratulations to every student who entered the competition. Keep creating art!

Photographs from das 2025 celebrations by Chloe Lloyd. 📸

Exhibition preparations for next week’s opening. Visit from 4th June - 5th July!

We're delighted to introduce our guest judge for 2026 Adele Darlington. She has the enjoyable and tough job of selecting the overall winner and runners up in each age group, from the dot-art Schools young artist exhibitors.

Adele Darlington has over 20 years of experience as a primary school teacher in the UK and is now a popular author and art consultant helping schools, trusts, teacher training providers and education partnerships devise and deliver high quality art and design experiences in their settings. As well as working in schools, Adele delivers keynote speeches, workshops and seminars at education conferences, sharing her passion for art in the primary school.

As well as writing the book 100 ideas for Primary Teachers: Art published by Bloomsbury, Adele is a regular contributor to Teach Primary magazine, is working on her second book title Primary Art in Action and her own primary art curriculum.

Read more about Adele and the shortlisting judges here: https://schools.dot-art.com/about-the-team/

Follow Adele on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/adele.darlington/

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Liverpool Architecture Festival 2026
FREE CHILDREN’S ARCHITECTURE IDEAS COMPETITION
Deadline extended until Sunday 31st May at 3pm!

Have you got an idea for how to bring a derelict building back to life? If so then it is time to get creative. This competition is all about revitalising old buildings with your ideas through drawing, painting and model making.
Cass Art, Liverpool Architecture Foundation CIC, dot-art and Merseyside Building Preservation Trust are inviting you to submit your ideas for a building.
Part of the Liverpool Architecture Festival 2026 this free to enter design competition is open to all young people aged 5-16.
- All entries will be judged by a panel of architects and artists with the winning 10 entries receiving CASS Art goodies.
- All shortlisted entries will be displayed in the art space of the CASS Art shop from 1st June to 7th June.
- Please create your ideas on a page/canvas/model no bigger than A3 with your name, and your parent(s)/ guardian(s) email address on the back.
- Please submit your entries to the CASS Art shop on School Lane in Liverpool ONE by Sunday 31st May at 3pm.
Please email [email protected] with any questions.

Liverpool Architecture Festival 2026
FREE CHILDREN’S ARCHITECTURE IDEAS COMPETITION

Have you got an idea for how to bring a derelict building back to life? If so then it is time to get creative. This competition is all about revitalising old buildings with your ideas through drawing, painting and model making.

Cass Art, Liverpool Architecture Foundation CIC, dot-art and Merseyside Building Preservation Trust are inviting you to submit your ideas for a building.

Part of the Liverpool Architecture Festival 2026 this free to enter design competition is open to all young people aged 5-16.

- All entries will be judged by a panel of architects and artists with the winning 10 entries receiving CASS Art goodies.

- All shortlisted entries will be displayed in the art space of the CASS Art shop from 25h May to 7th June.

- Please create your ideas on a page/canvas/model no bigger than A3 with your name, and your parent(s)/ guardian(s) email address on the back.

- Please submit your entries to the CASS Art shop on School Lane in Liverpool ONE by Sunday 24th May at 3pm.

Please email [email protected] with any questions.

Life Under the Microscope - Secondary Schools Art Competition
Are you ready to explore "Life Under the Microscope"? 🔬
Deadline 22nd May!

We're inviting secondary school students across the Liverpool City Region to create original artwork inspired by this year's theme. This is your chance to explore what lies behind the things we see every day, and to connect with the fascinating world of health and life sciences innovation happening right here in Liverpool.

The Theme: "Life Under the Microscope" can be interpreted in many ways. You could explore the literal hidden world of cells, microorganisms, and scientific discovery, or take a more personal and imaginative approach. What does it mean to live "under the microscope" as an individual? As part of our community? As a student? There's no single correct answer, just your unique perspective.

🎨 Media: You can choose to create a painting, drawing, mixed media or digital artwork, but it must be 2D and no use of AI please.

What you could win:

£100 art materials voucher for the winner
£25 art materials vouchers for each of 4 runners-up
A custom trophy
Your artwork projected across the walls of CENTRAL TECH and celebrated at our exhibition event in November 2026
For winning schools: The winning school's art department receives £500 to support future creative projects.

👉👉How to enter: Submit your artwork by completing the form below by 22nd May 2026. Year 7 to Year 11 can enter the competition.

Questions? Contact [email protected]

Who’s behind the competition?

This competition is brought to you by Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, an innovation district that brings together universities, hospitals, and businesses across Liverpool. They're dedicated to inspiring young people like you to explore careers in science, health, and innovation, and to build a skilled workforce for the Liverpool City Region. This competition is part of the KQ Futures programme which is co-funded by the LCR Life Sciences Innovation Zone, which aspires to create 8,000 new innovation-led jobs. They're being helped by dot-art, a local social enterprise dedicated to supporting artists of all ages.

The online vote has closed and we can now reveal the winning young artist for each school in the competition. Congratulations to them! Their artwork will feature in the 14th annual dot-art Schools exhibition at Walker Art Gallery in June.
View artwork here https://schools.dot-art.com/browse-schools/
Image: Butterfly Mandala, Year 9 student, Rainhill High School, 2024