Hundreds of museums across the UK have agreed to join forces with the aim of changing children’s awareness and understanding of biodiversity loss.
The initiative which was tagged THE Wild Escape was launched on Tuesday by the UK’s leading arts charity, Art Fund and it will see 500 institutions participate, making it the largest-ever collaboration between British museums.
The Wild Escape hopes to have children respond creatively to the UK’s natural environment threats during museum visits when children will be encouraged to look for animals featured in museum collections and create their own wildlife artworks.
A collection of the children’s artworks will be brought to life in a huge-scale immersive display, which will be unveiled on Earth Day (22 April) 2023.
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The initiative which is in partnership with BBC Bitesize, the free study resource for students, is inspired by BBC One’s forthcoming Wild Isles series, which will be presented by Sir David Attenborough.
Artists due to take part in the initiative include FKA Twigs, Es Devlin, Heather Phillipson, Rana Begum, Mollie Ray, Yika Shonibare, Tai Shani, Mark Wallinger, Angela Palmer, and Claire Twomey.
Jenny Waldman, director of Art Fund, said that The Wild Escape hopes to educate children and raise their awareness and understanding of biodiversity loss, which is “one of the defining challenges of our lives”.
“The Wild Escape is a first. We want to show how museums, by working together, can bring a fresh angle to learning, especially to welcome children’s creative responses to our great collections,” said Waldman.
According to a report by the Environment Agency, published in July 2022, England is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. A quarter of mammals in England and almost a fifth of UK plants face a threat of extinction. Meanwhile, a third of British pollinator species have declined.
The project is in partnership with the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the National Trust, and the English Heritage. It is one of the largest ever museum projects to ever be funded by Arts Council England.
Rosalind Mist, director of education and youth management at WWF, said: “It isn’t too late to turn things around, and young people are key to shaping the nature of the natural world”.
The Wild Escape is open to every primary school-age child to take part from now until July.
Story was adapted from Independent.
