By: Juliet Fontana, 8th Grade

The World Beach Project was put together by The Victoria and Albert Museum and is open to whomever may want to contribute. It is based on the simple idea that making pictures and patterns on the beach is an everlasting subconscious tradition to many people around the world.  Artist Sue Lawty took this and made it more elaborate by adding different aspects of design such as shape, color, and size, enabling sharing and comparing with people on different continents. This is why the students of the eighth grade at Greens Farms Academy walked in a huddled line along the road to the beach across the street. We collected rocks of various shapes and sizes as we searched along the shoreline of Long Island Sound.  There was much debate on what was to be made out of the assortment of rocks that had accumulated in a bed of sand. The final decision was a crab with big claws and small patterns of rocks making up the main body cavity. Everyone helped, arranging and rearranging the one color of rock our beach supplied until we were satisfied. The bland stones turned into beautiful art using nothing but many pairs of hands, yet they were only a small fraction of how many are taking part in the world beach project, linking people and art together.