BVLGARI North America and Save the Children Celebrate World Children's Day with 'Wish in a Bottle' Art Installation at the Children’s Museum Houston

Save the Children, Bvlgari North America, Children’s Museum Houston, and Young Audiences of Houston Partner to Engage 600 Elementary School Children in Art Project Expressing Their Hopes for the Future

HOUSTON (November 22, 2021) – In celebration of World Children’s Day, the artwork of 600 local children – containing their wishes for the future – was unveiled Saturday, Nov. 20, as part of a large, eight-by-six foot art installation during an exhibition debut at Children’s Museum Houston. The “Wish in a Bottle” installation and celebration event, a partnership between Save the Children, Bvlgari North America, Children’s Museum Houston and Young Audiences Houston, included the participation of hundreds of students from the Greater Houston and Beaumont areas, who each artistically shared their hopes for the world and placed them in bottles as part of an Arte di Bvlgari program activity.

The Arte di Bvlgari program is hosted in two local school districts in conjunction with Save the Children’s existing literacy, math and enrichment programs. Made possible by Bvlgari North America, Arte di Bvlgari offers children the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of arts over the course of the school year, including dance, sculpture, painting, visual arts and more.

“Today’s children are tomorrow’s artists, engineers, teachers and business leaders, and we are so excited to collaborate with Bvlgari North America, Children’s Museum Houston and Young Audiences of Houston to be able to engage children in artistic expression and shine a spotlight on their hopes for the future on this World’s Children’s Day,” said Betsy Zorio, Save the Children’s Vice President of U.S. Programs. “Arts programs for children can have a significant, positive impact on their development, yet far too many children have limited exposure to the arts. We are so grateful to our incredible partner Bvlgari for enabling us to continue to provide a robust, youth-centered arts curriculum in our afterschool programming.”

Community-based arts programs help children develop self-confidence, self-efficacy and self-awareness. Arte di Bvlgari is unique in its delivery, as it engages local artists and experts from the community in which the children live. Since the beginning of Bvlgari’s partnership with Save the Children in 2009, sales from Bvlgari’s iconic Save the Children jewelry collection has supported children through education and enrichment, emergency response, youth empowerment and poverty reduction programs.

“We are proud to continue our commitment to our now 12-year partnership with Save the Children with ‘Wish in a Bottle,’ a project which aims to provide positive impact to students in underserved communities,” said Daniel Paltridge, President of Bvlgari North America. “Particularly during the pandemic, far too many at-risk children were denied access to the arts, making Bulgari’s mission of supporting childhood development through art education more important than ever. Having raised more than $100 million thus far to benefit more than 2 million children around the world, we look forward to continuing our efforts to create positive social change in communities most in need through our partnership with Save the Children.”

For the “Wish in the Bottle” installation, Save the Children collaborated with Young Audiences of Houston, which helped engage area artists to guide the student activity and installation.

“Young Audiences of Houston believes in the potential of every child, and as an organization, we provide meaningful programs to youth in partnership with our local teaching artists,” said Mary Curry Mettenbrink, Young Audiences of Houston’s Executive Director. “This project is exciting, in that it allows our students to dream big about a brighter future – something that every child deserves. We look forward to sharing the art installation

with the community and hope children hold onto and remember those wishes – and they continue to grow, learn, and thrive.”

The installation unveiling and World Children’s Day celebration included representatives from Save the Children, Bvlgari North America, Children’s Museum Houston and Young Audiences Houston, as well as children who contributed their art to the Arte di Bvlgari activity and installation.