Artists unite in bid to help protect sea
AN ‘INSPIRING’ art exhibition to mark World Oceans Day has seen dozens of creators come together to create sculptures, art and use the spoken word to educate people that humans are harming the ocean.
Spoken word artists, marine biologists and sea shanty singers joined aquarist from Bristol Aquarium, Stacey Tomkin, and author of Octopus Medicine, Becci Louise, to bring their work to life at St Mary’s Church in Fratton.
The celebration highlighted how people can be more conscious about their plastic waste to protect the environment. The project, entitled Octopus Story, took place yesterday.
It comes following a £50,000 funding boost from Arts Council England in the hope of creating ‘bigger and better’ project platforms for creators to showcase their works across the city.
Organiser, Roy Hanney, said the exhibition featured‘ really fantastic work’ by schoolchildren across the area.
The Solent University lecturer said: ‘The eco warriors from one of the schools have created a giant octopus out of recycled materials and it’s absolutely stunning.
‘It’s really important that we get young people to engage with the environment but also it’s important that they have the opportunity to engage in creative ways of thinking about the world.
‘It’s inspirational to see local artists collaborating with marine biologists at the University of Portsmouth and working with these young schoolchildren to see that process bring out all of these different means of creativity.’
Author of poetry book Octopus Medicine, Becci Louise, said: ‘If we’re going to do anything in terms of the climate crisis and the way that our oceans are, then we need to be working together and we need to be working artistically in every way that we can really.
‘World Oceans Day was something we had the opportunity to get involved with, which is great because it’s very much in line with what we’re trying to do which is raise awareness in terms of our understanding of the ocean and build up a sense of our responsibility towards it.
‘We started the project earlier this year and we got art council funding from it, which was really exciting, and we’re building up an immersive theatre project which will hopefully culminate in November.’