From January to May 11 this year 40 children from Macpherson Primary School talked about their dreams and presented this through a visual arts exhibition, mentored by visual artist Donna Ong, and a theatrical presentation on 11 May 2010 which was also The Business Times Budding Artists Fund's 5th Anniversary!

The students were invited to talk about their aspirations of the future, and worked in groups to present a poem that they wrote themselves. The younger students also got to perform in My Bed Is Like A Sailing Ship, a poem by Bruce Lansky.

Most of the children were particularly excited to learn to use the cameras. Seeing some of the kids hold a camera and learn about portrait shots, headshots and so on for the first time really helped us understand how children perceive the world and the people around them as they talked to us about the photos they took and why they chose them.

All students got a chance to experience both visual arts and theatre each week as they spent an hour in one before moving on to the next one.

As the lessons progressed, their "ship" began to take shape and slowly, little by little, we saw them transform to the characters of their dreams. Some were Nurse, Doctor, Policemen, Firemen...but best of all, my favourites were Jacky Chan and Cinderella.

By the time they hit the stage, they were already bigger and better than their make-believe dreams... they had, with Sony's help, transformed the dreams into reality.