News
Friday, 27 November 2009
ACE grants £150,000 to CIAO!
Ark for ‘A positive vision of a low carbon future’
The CIAO! Ark is an environmental arts and science project, positively tackling many of the issues and perceptions surrounding climate change. It will take place in 2010, involving the participation of ten Oxfordshire primary schools, resulting in an Ark being built in a central Oxford location as an exhibition and performance space to display work created by school children and local community groups.
Working with cutting edge environmental scientists and engineers and many of Oxford’s cultural organisations and professional artists, children will be asked ‘If you were sailing away on an Ark in order to create a low carbon future, what would you take with you and what would you leave behind?’ The artists and scientists will work with children in the schools to help them formulate their responses and translate their visions creatively into art works and performances for the Ark.
Theatre designer Nomi Everall of Pegasus Theatre is working with Oxford based, Architecture sans Frontières on the design and construction of the Ark, which will be built from reclaimed materials harvested in the Oxford area. Large enough to exhibit art works, hold workshops and stage performances, the Ark will provide a centrepiece for the CIAO! Festival in June 2010, when the general public will be able to visit the Ark and take part in events celebrating low carbon living.
The project will be launched in January 2010 with an inspirational conference at the Sheldonian Theatre where 600 primary school children will hear from some of the country’s leading scientists working in the environment, such as Professor Brenda Boardman, expert in energy and future housing and Dr Malcolm McCulloch and Dr Shaun Savage talking about future transport. By June 2010, during the CIAO! Festival roles will be reversed in a second conference, when children will present their findings to an audience of scientists and policy makers, giving young people the opportunity to make their voices heard and express their views on the world they will grow up in.
For a full information pack on CIAO! Festival and The Ark Project go to http://www.ciaofestival.org.uk. If you are interested in supporting the project you can call 01865 263181 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
