Above: mouse drawn by Adele, photo Anna Litchfield

 

Creating positive experiences in Barrow

 

This August Art Gene joined local creatives to provide ‘positive experiences for families and young people in Barrow’ with Art & Environment workshops at the Isle of Walney Community Growing Space.

Budding environmentalists of the future dipped into the pond and collected specimens from the vegetable beds at Allotment Soup, before making drawings of our finds, with local Naturalist Pete Burton on hand to help identify the plant and animal life.  Through the course of the outdoor sessions the young artists created designs to go onto white suits, creating a nature camouflage to carry 2020’s environment into the future! See pictures of our journey below.

These workshops were made possible by Women’s Community Matters, Love Barrow Together and Drop Zone Youth Projects with funding from Lankelly Chase. A huge thank you to all the partners who made these workshops possible, and to everyone who came along to learn about all the life forms found on Walney.

 

Pond dipping at Allotment Soup with Pete Burton, photo Anna Litchfield

Pond dipping at Allotment Soup with Pete Burton, Photo Anna Litchfield

We started creating designs for our suits from the specimens found on site, photo Maddi Nicholson

The very knowledgeable Pete Burton helped identify our finds, including snails, water boatmen, dragonfly nymphs, wolf spiders, photo Anna Litchfield

We even caught a frog, photo Anna Litchfield

Pete Burton doing his thing, photo Maddi Nicholson

Drawing vegetable specimens in the Allotment Soup poly tunnel to create designs, photo Maddi Nicholson

Never mind the rain, we have socially distanced workshop space in the poly tunnel!, photo Maddi Nicholson

We caught butterflies and other flying insects in nets made by Maddi, photo Maddi Nicholson

Butterflies were carefully put into magnifying pots for identification, photo Maddi Nicholson

Transferring designs onto the suits, photo Maddi Nicholson

 ‘When the children run the world’! The final scientific-wearable artwork at Allotment Soup, photo Anna Litchfield