Art project teams up young care leavers with older people - in pictures

Founding Museum teacup featuring the London skyline. The Foundling Museum worked with looked-after young people and care leavers. Until 1954 the museum was the Foundling Hospital, a home for abandoned children. Former residents described how they had identical haircuts and clothes and felt 'identity-less', so the youngsters were encouraged to reclaim a sense of identity. They were given replicas of Foundling Hospital cups and saucers, and invited to cover them in ways that expressed their individuality Photograph: The Foundling Museum

A suitcase sound installation. Looked-after young people spoke to former "foundlings" and then recorded their own thoughts, and the recordings were made into sound installations. During the exhibition, their voices can be heard emanating from suitcases. They talk about feeling more upset than other people by the bad things that happen to them, and the nosiness of social workers: "If I can't be private, who am I?"
Photograph: The Foundling Museum

The young people were asked to remember what their carers, parents or teachers said to them on the first day of school. These comments were then made into name tags and sewn on to school shirts. Photograph: The Foundling Museum

A detail of one of the Foundling Museum shirts Photograph: The Foundling Museum

The project included some non-looked after children. These tended to cover their cups in "celebrities and hobbies", according to learning and communities manager Emma Middleton, whereas "if you can get a young person in care on board they will bring in something really poignant like pages of the bible" Photograph: The Foundling Museum

A teacup covered with pages of a novel, one of the cups the young people worked on Photograph: The Foundling Museum

Looked-after children were asked to bring in mementos from their childhood to personalise vests. They often found it tough to find such mementos Photograph: The Foundling Museum