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The Stephen Lawrence Gallery is collaborating with The Stephen Lawrence Research Centre (SLRC) based at De Montfort University, to host the SL30: Hopeful Futures Exhibition.

The SLRC invited schools and children to submit their artwork to be shown in this exhibition which will then be kept alongside the Stephen Lawrence archive at DMU. The exhibition is now touring to London and includes more than 100 works by children from 7 to 18 years old from across the UK.

The theme of Hopeful Futures is inspired by the work of Stephen’s mother, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and her family, to promote a hopeful and fairer society for all. Wider themes included love, care, change, friendship and family.

The SLRC challenged the children and young people to imagine what hopeful futures might like look like for them and they have more than risen to the challenge! With hundreds of works submitted this exhibition is both a moving commemoration of Stephen’s legacy and an optimistic vision for the future from our next generation.

The exhibition includes more than 100 works by children from 7 to 18 years old from across the UK that now form part of the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre Archive.

“The most extraordinary thing about Stephen and all that his legacy has come to represent is how wonderfully ordinary he was. Like every young person today, he had a lifetime’s worth of untapped hope and potential that tragically he was not allowed to explore. Stephen aspired to become an architect, and whilst other young people may have different ambitions, each and every one of them will become architects of their own future. The Hopeful Futures Creative Challenge invites young people to imagine a future in which discrimination does not exist. Imagination is one of the most powerful tools we can use to inspire meaningful societal change” – Baroness Lawrence