ARTY youngsters have proved a dab-hand at forging international links.

Their latest project has seen them team up with a group of schoolchildren on the other side of the world.

The scheme will bring a dash of colour to Breightmet because the young people have chosen to splash out on a building at the heart of the community.

Local youngsters have been working on a colourful mural that will adorn the security shutters of the Withins Housing Estate Office in Kentmere Road.

Community artist and co-ordinator for Breightmet Arts Les Elvin is raising the profile of the area after contacting a school in New Zealand to see if pupils were interested in taking part in the project.

And children from the Marina View School in far away Auckland were only happy to help out by providing their own colourful seaside design for the mural.

The international art project has been organised as a forerunner to next year's Commonwealth Games held in Bolton and Manchester to strengthen links between young people across the globe.

And Les, who supervised the brushwork on the new mural, said it was only the beginning of Breightmet's plan for world domination.

He explained: "Over the next few months we hope to target other schools in the Commonwealth via the Internet.

"We will be encouraging them to come up with mural designs and other forms of public arts that celebrate their heritage and their country's involvement in the Games.

"These will be designs that can be fabricated here and placed in different venues around Breightmet and further afield in Bolton."

And in return Les has designs on involving as many schools and organisations across the town as possible to come up with their own thoughts for works of public art that celebrate the town's history and heritage.

Les told the BEN that the designs will be loaded onto the Breightmet Arts Community Website -- www.breightmet.co.uk -- to show people across the Commonwealth the talent that exists in Breightmet.