Children's vision of 11 September attacks is shortlisted for art prize

Children's visions of the 11 September attacks, including a representation of the World Trade Centre made out of a match burned for every victim, were placed yesterday on the shortlist for the junior version of the Turner Prize.

Another artwork showed a child swaddled in white sheet and rubber gloves in what the 11-year-old artist said was an attempt to convey the feeling of being trapped under dust as the towers collapsed.

The entries both came from the Caol Primary School in Fort William, which has its own resident artist and is at the forefront of a movement encouraging children to draw inspiration from modern as well as traditional painters.

The model of the twin towers, entitled 911, was made by 11-year-old Jodie Fraser and is one of a selection of entries for the £20,000 Barbie Prize made by pupils at Caol.

She decided to represent the atrocity by burning 3,000 matches after watching the attacks when she was off from school on 11 September. "It was going to have words on it but I decided not to. I thought that when the buildings fell it looked like matches falling," she said yesterday.

Other pieces on the shortlist for the prize include those submitted by youngsters at the Art Room, in Oxford, which teaches art as therapy to children with learning and behavioural difficulties.

Five schools have been nominated to go forward to the final, which will be judged by figures in the British art world, including the former chairman of the Institute for Contemporary Arts, Ivan Massow. Their decision will be announced on 5 December and, in the meantime, work by the shortlisted schools will go on display from today at the Royal College of Art in London.

Jo Volley, senior lecturer at Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, said the entries showed British art was in a healthy condition.

"Experience tells us that children are full of creative energy," Ms Volley said. "This wonderful exhibition demonstrates just that. It has been really refreshing to be involved."