Projects

The Environment and Me Project

April 22, 2022

On Saturday 2nd April 2022, an exhibition of artwork by members of People First Dorset in response to Climate Change was displayed at Dorset Museum to celebrate the Environment and Me project delivered in September and October last year.

People First Dorset and Dorset Museum partnered on this co-creative community project co-funded by Wessex Water and Dorset Community Foundation to offer a series of workshops led by artist and writer, Sarah Acton. The group explored and learned about climate change and environmental themes through creative conversation and making, all inspired by selected objects in the museum. Each session took place in a different gallery of the museum focusing on artefacts such as The Dorset Ooser and Elisabeth Frink’s Green Man. Artwork included story staffs, animal masks, talismans, textile bunting, mosaic collages and printed T-shirts, together with a film of the project created by Pageant productions.

Participants, family, friends and staff from People First Dorset were invited to the private exhibition and also enjoyed exploring Dorset Museum. Participants enjoyed seeing their work again on display and remembering the creative community together, ‘I am so proud to be part of the Environment and Me creative community, and proud to see what we achieved in this exhibition – inspiring reflections, artwork, and what you can see from the film, the fun and co-learning we experienced through shared ideas and shared conversations that created a lot of positive energy.’ Sarah said at the event, ‘We really worked into local and global climate change themes to work out what we can do right now in our own lives to make a difference.’

‘Using art is really useful, as trying to understand or talk about such a big topic such as the environment can be overwhelming and hard to get across what you’re thinking. But by using art you can show what you want to say visually which is much better. It is a really useful tool to have.’ (Participant)

‘The project made me realise how much I didn’t think about the environment before and learn what I can do to help. It has changed the way I live my everyday life. I now recycle more, avoid single-use plastics and I think more about how us humans’ impact the world.’ (Participant)