As part of the international project Creative Connections (http://creativeconnexions.eu) the present communication describes a small scale action-research conducted by a Visual Education teacher in a 5th grade class in a school in northern Portugal. Like in other participant schools in six different European countries, children were introduced to an online contemporary art gallery and stimulated to interpret and to use visual art to communicate about themselves, and their national and European identity. Based on the analysis of children’s voices (collected through their visual, oral and text products) it was evidenced the great impact of the European crisis in children’s perceptions of their own lives and of the existing social, economic and political constraints. In line with our previous work (e.g. Moura, 2013), Art Education approaches showed to be suitable to engage children in critical analysis of their own ideas about social and political controversial issues and to arise civic, social and political awareness. Findings are discussed highlighting the relations of Art Education and Citizenship Education.