Connecting Communities and Heritages against Climate Change

Connecting Communities and Heritages against Climate Change is a collaborative and expansive programme exploring how intergenerational learning about climate change mitigation and adaptation can be shared through a cultural experience encompassing art, language, and a call to action. This work will explore these methods for learning about similarities, differences, and shared themes and approaches through local art, language and culture, and its efficacy in achieving behavioural change. Initiatives in which children and young people can express themselves through art for action is termed ‘artivism’ and forms a vehicle to engage the young people with others in society who can help effect the changes they envisage.

Art for Action: Artivism

Background

In response to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 17 primary and secondary schools in the Highlands region of Scotland were issued a challenge by Highland One World Global Learning Centre to produce artworks which reflected the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) and would inspire others to take action on climate. The artworks were displayed at the Highland Council chambers in Inverness while the COP, and a parallel mock COP took place across 11 schools, for Highland Council staff and visitors to the chambers to view the work.

In parallel, 12,000 km away, 34 young people from across five African YMCAs gathered in Nairobi, Kenya in September for a game design bootcamp. As youth leaders, these young people are testing out the games they have designed to engage other young people in their local communities to explore and inspire calls to action.

The main aims:

• To support young people to translate learning about climate change into informed action through participation in artivism projects.
• To support young people to have a voice and show leadership in response to international climate change conferences (eg. COP 29) at a local level by creating climate action exhibitions
• To support young people in raising awareness of and advocating for change on issues that are important to them with those who can make a difference locally.

Forthcoming activity:

• Build on artivism projects in Scotland and Kenya by partnering with lead organisations: Highland One World and Africa Alliance YMCA.
• Support third partner to come on board – the University of Ibadan, Nigeria – to develop their own artivist project across schools in Abuja.
• Codesign with the Open University team research of the process and responses to the young people’s artivism, by taking the children, young people, their educators and youth leaders to exhibitions with local leaders in key local venues.
• Three events are being planned for Spring 2025 in Inverness, Nairobi or Mombasa and Abuja. Local research teams will be gathering data from all attendees across the generations through novel methods: climate confidence boards, climate chats, ShowED postcards and generating a manifesto of calls for change. This will support the children and young people in discussing first-hand how policymakers, council and business leaders respond to their calls for action.

• Promote sharing of this knowledge across national settings through research dissemination and a virtual exhibition