Antony Gormley

If I hadn't had significant others, that means people other than my parents ( who were always very pleased with whatever I did that wasn't actively horrible), and encouraged me as a child, I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now. The most important thing was having my work shown and getting others in the school to have a look at it. When I was 13, I was asked by the school to do a mural at the end of a long corridor and I worked on it with a friend; my first work in the real world. Somehow making it made me feel that it was possible to make things that change places and people's feelings about where they are.

The great thing about art is that it relies on personal experience, and people, particularly young children need to be encouraged to feel that their personal experience is of value. Art which achieves this communication has value because it is different from anything that might have existed before: valuable to all of us. I was lucky to have art teachers who not only helped me to realise my vision, but also gave it a place in a shared world where it could become everyone's.