Art Fund has launched a new climate project, with more than 500 museums in the UK teaming up to “change children’s awareness and understanding of biodiversity loss”.
The Wild Escape is the largest ever partnership between the UK’s museums. It is one of the largest museum projects to ever be funded by Arts Council England.
Jenny Waldman, director of Art Fund, said The Wild Escape aims to raise children’s “awareness and understanding of biodiversity loss“.
The collaboration, Waldman said, will “show how the UK’s museums can encourage new forms of creativity, encouraging children to take ownership of one of the defining challenges of our lives… the risk to our precious wildlife”.
Inspired by the BBC’s new Wild Isles series, presented by Sir David Attenborough, the initiative aims to inspire hundreds of thousands of children to visit museums and respond creatively to the threat to the UK’s natural environment.
Children taking part can look for animals featured in museum collections and create their own artworks.
These works will be brought to life in an immersive display created by games studio Preloaded, to be unveiled on Earth Day 2023 (22 April).
From now until July, The Wild Escape is open to every child in primary school – in class, through a visit to a museum, or online.
“Encourage new forms of creativity”
Hundreds of museums, galleries and historic houses will host special activities related to the environment and biodiversity.
Artists taking part in the project include FKA Twigs, Es Devlin, Andy Holden, Chila Kumari Burman, Heather Phillipson, Thomas J Price, Mollie Ray, Yinka Shonibare, Tai Shani, Claire Twomey, and Mark Wallinger.
“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.
“We want every child to learn from and enjoy what museums can offer whilst at the same time drawing attention to the threat of biodiversity loss in this country, one of the defining challenges of our lives.”
More information about The Wild Escape can be found here.
Images: Art Fund
