Jubilee 2012: Giant montage of the Queen to break world record

A giant image of the Queen made up of thousands of self-portaits of school children is set to break a world record for the most artists working on the same art installation.

The spectacular 50-ft collage of her majesty was beamed onto the front of Buckingham Palace as part of the Face Britain project. More than 200,000 people - including school pupils and a clutch of celebrities - contributed to the huge montage by submitting their own self-portraits online.

As well as the projection on the Royal residence, the montage portrait of the Queen was screened across other UK cities up and down the country.

The previous record for ‘the most artists working on same art installation’ was 28,267 people, who contributed to an installation in Israel in 2009.

The Prince's Foundation for Children & the Arts are the brains behind Face Britain - a national project which invited every young person in the country to take part.

Children aged between four and 16 of all skill levels were tasked with producing their own self-portraits in different forms including drawings, textiles, 3D, paintings, graphics and photography.

The idea was conceived to celebrate the country’s children and young people in the run-up to The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

According to the organisers 1,000 portraits per hour were uploaded over the final week of entries (24- 31 March).

A handful of Britain’s best-known faces donated their own self-portraits - including Grammy Award winning songstress Adele, illusionist Derren Brown and TV presenter Fearne Cotton.

The charity said the project was a way for young people to explore their creativity and consider their own identity and place in history.

Speaking about the project, chief executive Jeremy Newton of The Prince's Foundation for Children & the Arts said: “Face Britain is about empowering children to explore their identity creatively; using the arts to communicate how they see themselves and giving us all a unique snapshot of our country's future generation.”

The Face Britain projections will run from 8.30-11.30pm at Buckingham Palace and 18 other locations across the UK until Saturday.

The projections will be screened on the following BBC Big Screens.
     
Birmingham - Victoria Square
Bradford - Centenary Square
Bristol - Millennium Square
Cardiff - The Hayes
Coventry - Millennium Place
Derby - The Market Place
Edinburgh - Festival Square
Leeds - Millennium Square
Leicester - Humberstone Gate
Liverpool - Clayton Square
Manchester - Exchange Square
Middlesbrough - Centre Square
Norwich - Chapelfield Plain
Plymouth - Armada Way
Portsmouth - Guildhall Square
Swindon - Wharf Green
Waltham Forest, London - Walthamstow Town Square
Woolwich - General Gordon Square
       
For more details, visit Face Britain.