Museums and children inspire positive creative action towards biodiversity with The Wild Escape
The Wild Escape, the biggest digital artwork created by thousands of children and inspired by animals in museum collections, will be revealed on Saturday 22 April in celebration of Earth Day.
Bringing together museums, world-leading artists and environmentalists, with schools and families, The Wild Escape is led by the Art Fund and is made possible by one of the largest museum National Lottery Project Grants ever awarded by Arts Council England.
Since January, over 530 museums have taken part in The Wild Escape by hosting events highlighting the nation’s biodiversity loss through the animals in their collection. Thousands of children have been getting involved by finding a favourite animal in their local museum and creating an artwork imagining its journey to a natural habitat, in the hopes that through creativity and visiting museums and galleries, young people will become more aware of biodiversity loss and take positive actions towards the defining challenge of their lives.
The creativity and celebrations seen across the country will culminate in the unveiling of The Wild World on Earth Day - an epic-scale digital artwork. Art Fund will reveal the digital landscape, an imaginary world which features artworks created by thousands of children, which was specially commissioned from BAFTA winning games studio, PRELOADED. Children can add their animals, sharing their images with the world, and completing the picture by June 2023 by logging in on their website.
Families who want to get involved with the project on the Earth Day weekend can find hundreds of events and activities taking place at museums and galleries up and down the country on the Art Fund website. From crafty workshops to exciting exhibitions, there are lots of exciting opportunities to join The Wild Escape.
Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England, said: “We’re passionate about supporting young people of all ages to be creative, no matter where they live, where they go to school and where they spend their free time. That’s why I’m proud to have supported the ambitious Wild Escape project with a National Lottery Project Grant of £890,000 – the largest we’ve ever given to a museums project.”
“The Wild Escape makes us see our nation’s collections in a new way that highlights the importance of the UK’s wildlife and shows how museums can help inspire creative action to tackle the climate crisis. I look forward to visiting Wolverhampton Art Gallery on Earth Day to see first-hand the impact this UK-wide project has had locally on children and young people.”
Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said: “The Wild Escape is a real demonstration of the power of our museums to work together for the benefit of their communities. Beyond the bricks and mortar of buildings, The Wild Escape sheds new light on the stories told by our world famous collections, and shows how relevant and vital these stories are. Never has there been a more important time for all of us to campaign for and protect our precious wildlife.”
The project is led by Art Fund alongside hundreds of museums, artists and environmentalists, in partnership with WWF, the RSPB, National Trust and English Heritage.
For a list of activities for families, visit here.
To upload an artwork to The Wild World and find out more about the campaign, visit here.
