The University will hold an exhibition of artwork on coastal climate change by young people in Kent between Friday 29 April – Thursday 12 May.
Part of Unfiltered Coast – a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) that engages young people in climate research on the Kent coast – the exhibition will provide young people with an opportunity to express their concerns about climate change and the water crisis through art.
The exhibition will be at the Gulbenkian Arts Centre on the Canterbury campus. A revised version will also be at the Gulbenkian Arts Centre for the Kent Youth Summit between Monday 27 June and Friday 1 July. The team also hope to bring the exhibition to Ramsgate later in the year.
The Unfiltered Coast project began with two creative practice ‘walkshops’ held in Folkestone and Ramsgate in November 2021. The walkshops were co-designed with a youth-led Climate Change focus group and facilitated by Dr Lavinia Brydon (Kent’s School of Arts), Dr Declan Wiffen (Kent’s School of English) and Dr Rob Barker (Kent’s Department of Chemistry and Forensic Science). Several of the artworks in the exhibition were initiated during, or inspired by, the November walkshops.
Amongst the pieces on display is an acrylic painting of the wind turbines off the Kent coast from Sophie Elliott, who took part in the Folkestone walkshop on 6 November. Sophie explains: ‘The turbines made me think about how we do use renewable energy, but we are not making the switch fast enough. I call the piece ‘Wish You Were Here’ because it highlights how I, and possibly many others, wish that governments and fuel companies would get on board with increasing our green energy production’.