On Saturday 22 April we invited school children and their families to join us for the culmination of The Wild Escape – a nationwide project for museums, schools and families to picture the future of the UK’s wildlife through art and museum objects.

As part of the Wild Escape we hosted 7 different school and group visits to take part in a day of outdoor and creative learning. We also worked for a term with Year 5s from Westfield School. We invited all these children back with their families alongside the general public for a mass outdoor creation event to mark Earth Day.

See the film of Earth Day here (🎥 Ross Domoney)

There were a range of activities on offer, including butterfly making, clay creatures, log seat painting, making spider habitats, bird painting and 'meet the pond-life!'

Biodiversity expert Pete the Pond and his team were here doing pond-dipping and wildlife talks.

Everyone was invited to help create our land art installation - a giant woven nest led by local artist and sculptor, Rebecca Child, with eggs created by Westfield School.

At 2pm the nest was launched across the pond to be mounted on the island in the middle, and to be a home for the ducks and wildlife that live on our pond

The project was led by Rebecca Child, Pete the Pond, and our Arts and Education Manager, Rebecca Ainscough. We are extremely grateful to our guest artists Kate Shearcroft, Thom Kofoed, Georgia Sawers, Susannah Austin and Susie Wheeler. Have a listen (below) to what Pete the Pond has to say about looking after our wildlife!

Children are invited to upload the creatures they have created through The Wild Escape and Earth Day activities to Art Fund's giant digital artwork - The Wild World. Once uploaded they can put in a three-word code to find their creature moving around The Wild World and share its location with friends and family. See the link to The Wild World here.

We are grateful to have received a grant from South East Museum Development to support this project.

The Wild Escape was made possible by lead support from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants, with additional support from Art Fund.