It was an invitation to visit Chengdu, China in late 2008 that revealed to the rest of the world the significant account of the Great Wenchuan earthquake. How? Through the touching artworks of children who survived.

Trish Amichi, founder of Gallery Amichi, launched her Big Ones Little Ones (BOLO) project in 2004 in order to showcase pictures from young artists that reflect their experiences in the world today. The “big ones” refers to Australia's Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander artists who act as mentors to the “little ones”, children aged from 5 up.

While such an opportunity is open to all children, BOLO focuses on those who have been “displaced, dispossessed or disfranchised”, including special needs kids.

“I’m the first person outside these communities to see these artworks and read these stories. That is an unbelievable privilege, as is working with kids … It’s just beautiful,” says Amichi.

Following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Amichi and her Chinese-born artist friend, Pinglin, created the BOLO theme, “through my eyes”, to encourage children in the disaster area to embrace an artistic journey.

This resulted in over 50 paintings done by the surviving and local children, aged 7-13. In 2012, 20 selected paintings were then exhibited at the Children’s Palace in Nanjing. BOLO’s aim is to ensure that the “little ones” have a voice in the “shadows of our society”.

“I brought these drawings back to the UK and would like to show them to as many people as possible, so that people could see the disaster through a child’s eyes and how these children have depicted the horrifying experiences they lived through at such a young age,” said Pinglin.

Amongst the earthquake artworks, Amichi was deeply moved by an artwork depicting twins being rescued from the rubble.

“That was just a pictorial, graphic account of children’s lives and what happened during that 2008 earthquake. And [those] images will forever remain with me,” says Amichi.

“My intent has always been that because it was such a significant account of the earthquake, both pictorially and in words by those children whose schools had collapsed … that collection of I think 20 paintings including the survivors, must go back to Chengdu. It has to go back to Chengdu. So my plan is to somehow make that happen next year, being the 10th year anniversary which I think is highly significant,” says Amichi.

With BOLO, there are “no boundaries, real or perceived”. Amichi reinforces the notion that all children should have equal opportunity in terms of accessing and participating in such a unique art program. Unfortunately, reaching all these kids is a different story.

Amichi’s passion towards children is impossible to put into words. Instead, she shares a story of a workshop she did in Brunei: “And, this little boy just jumped out of his chair and came over and gave me the biggest hug in the world … I thought he was patting me but in fact he was rubbing his face against my hair and just this hug went on forever”.

“This is why we do it; this is the payback. You get kids who smile, you get kids whose lives have changed and you can’t buy that sort of thing and if you have the privilege of doing these sorts of things, it’s just very reinforcing and makes it all worthwhile,” says Amichi.

In terms of future aspirations, Amichi hopes to have an international exhibition where at the heart of it, would be the artworks from the children survivors of the Great Wenchuan earthquake.

“The majority of that body of work in that international collection would actually stay in China as a gift to China but with the Chengdu paintings to go back to that province”.

In 2018, the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), also supported by BOLO, will be having their world congress in Athens, Greece. Ideally, Amichi hopes to hold an international exhibition that would include the earthquake pictures, other artworks from five schools in Nanjing as well as works by refugees.

What started as a 5-school exhibition in 2004 has transformed into connecting with 5000 children in over 90 urban, rural and remote communities across 30 countries.

“I’ve never seen anything that’s been less than 100% positive written or said about BOLO and what it does for kids and communities,” says Amichi.