More than 100 schoolchildren entered a competition to contribute to the cover art for this year’s Royston Arts Festival.

Local artist Stacey Leigh Ross has created the cover art, with the theme of change, by incorporating 20 works of art from children aged four to 12.

The competition – which was open to schoolchildren across Royston and the surrounding villages – saw youngsters put forward many concepts for change, including seasons, lifecycles, climate change and chameleons.

Submissions came in many shapes and mediums, including acryclic on canvas, paint, collage with tissue paper, sketch, coloured pencils and felt tip.

Stacey said: “Winners were selected based on their show of understanding the theme and artistic skill, and choosing was tough.

“The children thoroughly interrogated the concept of change in ways that blew me away.

“When seven year olds create their own quotes about change, 10 year olds show how a neighbourhood can rise and fall, and 11 year olds show that change occurs under pressure, we should all be listening to what our children have to say.

They understand far more than we think and, as the future is theirs, their opinion of the changes we make to this world should certainly be considered.”

Kirsten Grimmer, chairman of Creative Royston – the volunteer-led team behind the festival – said: “The quality of entries we have received has been outstanding, not only in artistry, but their interpretation of the theme has been inspired.

“Stacey had great visions from the outset, as is evidenced in the final piece. It was agreed very early on that we had too many outstanding entries to pick just a handful of winners, so we have 20 equal winners.”

The finished piece will be used to promote this year’s Royston Arts Festival, which takes place from September 22 to 24.

The artwork will be on show at Royston Arts Society’s annual exhibition at Royston Town Hall as part of the festival.

The original winning entries will be on display at Royston Library from September 15 right through the festival.

For more information about the Royston Arts Festival, including a schools’ creative writing competition which is currently open, visit www.creativeroyston.org.