It’s been great to get back into project mode so early in 2023 and we couldn’t think of a forward thinking school with their children and staff to help us interrogate one of the most important issues of our time, climate change through our Changemakers programme.

Changemakers is our issue based work programme where school communities explore issues that matter to them through our collections, exhibitions, University partners and our artist network. Supported by the MADE initiative, school children from Abraham Moss (who themselves applied to be a part of the project) alongside artist Hattie Kongaunruan and Whitworth staff, are starting to develop a brand new workshop for other schools to engage with our themes and topics linking to the environment.

The children are taking matters into their own hands from the very start. Interviewing artists on their practice and suitabilities to lead an 8 week project to looking at all aspects of the gallery from exhibitions, behind the scenes and investigating the existing workshop model and previous developed resources linked to being a green gallery.

Collaborative, open ended learning has always played an important role in the ethos of our gallery education programmes and so far the children and Hattie have promised to be as imaginative as is possible looking as they do deeper dives into messaging, producing pledges and manifestos, creating mood trees and having fun sharing what puzzles, games and quizzes they enjoy and think others will too.

The project is half-way through and we look forward to sharing the outcomes and flying the green flag for their session once it’s ready. Stay tuned…