Climate Crisis Awareness with Wandsworth Primary Schools

Each project has aimed to inspire climate change awareness in young people through engagement with different creative practices, whether that be photography, sculpture, print or design. The projects have also been a wonderful opportunity to give RCA recent graduates paid experience working in education settings and supported Wandsworth Council's engagement work with the community to identify how we combat climate change.

In May 2021, 15 primary schools across Wandsworth participated in A Greener Picture: Photography and Climate Change. Workshops were delivered by four recent Photography graduates: Eleonora Agostini, Sara Marinangeli, Alexander Mourant and Matthew Rhys Thompson. They were guided by Tom Lovelace, artist and Tutor at RCA, teaching on MA Photography and PGCert in Art and Design Education. The sessions examined and explored our relationship to the natural world and how photography can help us change the way we see things and communicate issues. 670 pupils aged between 8–11 worked individually and collectively to create sculptures and cyanotypes which they then photographed. The results were shared online and on banners exhibited outside Wandsworth Town Hall during Wandsworth Arts Fringe.

Plant Power was led by Ellie Wyatt (MA Print, 2019), supported by Xintong Zhang (MA Print, 2021). The project used plant life to explore important questions about humanity’s responsibility for the environmental crisis, as well as exploring our own unique and personal relationships with nature and the natural world. Ellie and Xintong worked with 9 classes from 7 primary schools across Wandsworth to encourage them to think about how trees and plants grow and connect as well as speculating on how plant-life - ever resilient - might adapt for our changing world. The artworks created by the 202 young people involved went on display outside Wandsworth Town Hall and at Wandsworth's Civic Suite for the Wandsworth Arts Fringe Schools Showcase 2022.

Blake C. Joshua (Design Products, 2021) led this collaborative arts project with over 50 primary school classes from across the borough. The project aimed to raise awareness about the impact of single use plastics on the marine ecosystem and to encourage young people to look at plastics and waste as material from which they can create something new, rather than it being thrown away. 

Blake led CPD sessions for teachers to empower them to lead sessions as well as delivering workshops himself. The project was managed by Wandsworth Council’s Arts Service in partnership with Children’s Services, Kids Against Plastic, representatives from the participating schools and the RCA. Each school created artwork to contribute to a collective exhibition at Southside Shopping Centre in April 2023.

During February and March 2024, children in years 4 & 5 from up to 40 primary schools across Wandsworth created artworks exploring the impact of textile waste on the planet. Following artist-led teacher training, each class created a woven piece for a collaborative exhibition which opened to the public during April and May 2024, alongside a programme of creative workshops for visitors.

MA Fashion alumna Caroline Lauvetz devised and delivered the project, drawing upon inspiration from Wandsworth’s rich history of textile manufacturing along the Wandle River. Each pupil practiced weaving techniques on Wandsworth-sourced reclaimed fabrics to create their individual and unique piece of cloth. Across the borough, each participating pupil’s upcycled, woven cloth was joined together to create a textile river. Our pupil-built river flowed through the exhibition space in Wandsworth’s Southside Shopping Centre, referencing the Wandle’s historic textile manufacturing and today’s polluted rivers worldwide.

Through the project pupils learned about the life cycle of a garment to understand the environmental impact of the current industrial systems in the fashion industry and discover sustainable methods of consuming and manufacturing clothing. As well as this environmental education, pupils developed their creative skills such as drawing, sketching, cutting, weaving, and creating patterns with colours.

Overall, 1,323 children participated in the workshops and the exhibition attracted 2,462 visitors.