Picture a future for UK nature with the Wild Escape project…
We are delighted to announce our involvement in this wonderful venture! The Wild Escape, a major new project uniting hundreds of museums and schools in a celebration of UK wildlife and creativity.
Taking place from January to July 2023, The Wild Escape invites primary school children (ages 7-11) to find a favourite animal in their local museum and create an artwork imagining its ‘escape’ back to its natural habitat.
The pictures and stories children create will be brought together in a collective work of art that imagines a better future for the wildlife on our doorstep, launched online and in museums on Earth Day 2023.
The Great Escape is made possible by lead support from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants, with additional support from Art Fund.
Why take part?
Led by Art Fund and supported by Arts Council England, with hundreds of museums and schools taking part, The Wild Escape is an opportunity for the next generation to explore the big subjects of biodiversity and the environment, through the power of art and imagination.
For museum teams and school teachers, the project offers a fun and educational way to engage children with museum collections, through a focus on wildlife and the nature around us.
The Museum of Gloucester is getting involved, why not contact us if you are interested in taking part…
About the Project
The Wild Escape is a major new project led by Art Fund uniting hundreds of museums with schools and families in a celebration of UK wildlife and creativity. Taking place from January to July 2023, The Wild Escape invites children to find a favourite animal in their local museum and create an artwork imagining its journey to a natural habitat.
The pictures and stories children create will be brought together in a collective work of art that imagines a better future for the wildlife on our doorstep, launched online and in venues across the UK on Earth Day 2023.
The Wild Escape is led by Art Fund alongside hundreds of museums, artists and environmentalists, in partnership with WWF, the RSPB, National Trust and English Heritage.
The Wild Escape is made possible thanks to funding from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants, with additional support from Kusuma Trust, Foyle Foundation and a group of generous individuals and trusts.
The Wild Escape is inspired by Wild Isles, a landmark BBC series exploring the flora and fauna of the UK.
The Wild Escape Project Pilot
The Museum of Gloucester was proud to be part of the Wild Escape pilot project supported by Art Fund!
We took our taxidermy on tour to the Forest of Dean where students created the most wonderful comics that told of the escape from the Museum to a better environment.
We are so lucky to have an incredible education collection that we could take into the classroom for the students to get up close with and using some fact sheets, think about what would be the best environment for the things that fly.
We started by introducing that I was from the Museum. We asked what a Museum was and then we went onto the taxidermy. We also talked a little about why people stuff animals.
We then told them we were going to create a cartoon that told the story of one of our flying creatures escaping to a better world. What would that look, feel and sound like?
The poem below was created by a KS1 teacher from Gloucestershire who was inspired by the Wild Escape project. The KS2 class spent time making comics, check out our Instagram for some of the kids telling their tales!
