We are thrilled to announce that New College Worcester has won the Secondary School category in the VICTA Braille Art Competition!
This year, students were challenged by VICTA Patron Clarke Reynolds, also known as Mr Dot, to create a piece of Braille Art inspired by his newly released children’s book, Mr Dot and His Magical White Cane Adventures. The challenge invited young people to bring their own adventures to life through texture, creativity and imagination.
Clarke introduced his challenge in a video especially for participants, encouraging them to think boldly and playfully as they explored the world of tactile art.
Congratulations to all the talented students at NCW who took part! Each student produced a unique, personal piece of Braille Art, representing a journey or adventure of their own. Their creations ranged from outer‑space odysseys to tropical island escapes, each one bursting with vibrant ideas and carefully crafted textures.
VICTA were hugely impressed with the standard of work, with Clarke Reynolds commenting:
“Love the white cane adventures, especially the space‑themed ones. The illustrations look like they should be on the cover of children’s novels.”
We are incredibly proud of our students for their creativity, skill, and the confidence they showed in experimenting with tactile design.
As part of their prize, students will be enjoying a pizza party — a fun and fitting way to celebrate their success!
A huge well done to everyone involved. Winning the Secondary School category is a fantastic achievement, and a wonderful testament to the imagination and artistic talent of NCW students.
Ruby
Lost Island of Fossils
Ruby has created a colourful island scene by sticking yellow tissue paper onto a light blue background to create her lost island. She has used bright, light-blue tissue paper along the bottom to represent the sea and a circle of yellow in the top-left corner for a bright sun. On the island are two scattered fossils – Ruby has created them by painting small sticks white and arranging them in the shape of fossilised bones.
Rory
Space
A black background with a space scene collaged on top. A white paper rocket shoots up towards four decorated planets. The rocket has been decorated with green textured tissue paper, with orange tissue paper flames coming from the bottom. Each of the planets have been decorated using paint marbling, giving them different colours and patterns.
Aliyah
Cubist Planet
A tactile collage on a black background with a large red square positioned centrally. The red surface has a crinkled texture and contains faint raised braille dots arranged in lines. On the right edge of the red square, several narrow vertical strips of glittery orange material are layered, extending slightly beyond the top edge. Small white speckled marks are scattered across the black background around the square.
Finn
Expedition Braille
A collage on a dark blue background decorated with gold stars showing a space scene. A circular moon has been cut from corrugated paper sits top right and a rocket shoots up towards it. The rocket has been created from different textured papers, with an orange stripe through the middle. Written across the orange stripe in bold black pen is the word ‘BRAILLE’.
Elonia
A tactile piece on white card with rows of evenly spaced braille dots covering the upper two-thirds of the page to create a bus. Near the bottom left and bottom right are two symmetrical looped shapes made from thick cord or ‘Wikki Stix’, each crossed by a darker strand, making the wheels of the bus.
Thomas
Adventures in Space
A tactile collage featuring a space scene with circular planet shapes arranged across a black background. Each planet is made from coiled ‘Wikki Stix’, creating a raised spiral texture, with each planet having a different pattern and colours. To the left a large sun bleeds of the page. A small astronaut figure floats above the planets holding out their white cane.
Zaki
On Top of the World
A bright and colourful collage showing a large tree made from layered green tissue paper forming a textured canopy. Several flat orange circular shapes are placed across the canopy. A brown painted trunk runs vertically down the centre of the page. Standing on the top of the tree, a small painted human figure stands with arms out wide!
Ed
A Walk Along the Sand
A tactile artwork on white paper featuring raised braille dots arranged in structured rows across most of the page. Watercolour paint is brushed over sections of the braille to create a sea, sand and sky painting, with a blue area near the top, a yellow band across the middle, and green painted shapes near the bottom. The braille dots remain clearly raised beneath the paint, creating a layered texture across the surface.
Bella
Unlocking the Galaxy
A large keyhole cut-out from a beige sheet of paper revealing a space scene which is layered behind. The black space scene is decorated with raised star shapes and swirling dotted patterns. Flat circular shapes representing planets are positioned at different heights within the keyhole, each with a distinct smooth surface. The keyhole is outlined with a wide gold border that creates a raised edge.
To see all the wonderful artwork created by young people from across the UK, please visit the VICTA Braille Art Gallery.
