By Lisa Howie, Director, Bermuda National Gallery
Local Action, Global Impact: A Community Project on the World
Each December we celebrate the creativity of our youth in a month long student art exhibition. This year’s theme, Local Action, Global Impact: A Community Project on the World, takes an inter-disciplinary approach toward sustainable development and follows the 2015 UNESCO theme for global education. By using science curriculum questions, students and their teachers are challenged to present visual expression related to climate change, biodiversity and disaster risk-reduction.
Students are asked to consider (but are not limited to) a set question per age category. Primary 3 to 6 students are asked: What are ways we can conserve water in Bermuda? Middle School students are asked: As an oceanic island, how does climate change affect our land and water ecosystem? Senior students are asked to consider the forms of energy (heat, light, electricity and magnetism): How can we reduce and save our use of energy?
Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS) is a partner in this project. Working together, by teaming art and science, we are nurturing scientific exploration through a creative lens. BZS staff Dr. Jamie Bacon and Lynda Johnson offer these words of support:
“The BNG and the Bermuda Zoological Society have established a unique partnership to support learning opportunities for Bermuda’s students. Linking art with important issues like climate change is a creative way of engaging students to learn about global topics that have a direct impact on their island home. We will continue to work together to support students’ understanding of conservation concepts through experiences beyond the classroom.”
The Annual Student Art Competition provides a platform to celebrate youth creativity. The theme drives inter-connectivity between art and science-technology-engineering-math, subjects which demand creative thinking but are often disconnected from the subject of art. We anticipate, as always, a diversity of expression coupled with written descriptions that bare wisdom.
Visitors to the island can explore some of the BNG’s permanent collection in The Ondaatje Wing and the Watlington Room. Here, one can enjoy artwork from various regions and time periods, styles and mediums. Lots to take in from master painters to burgeoning youth expression. Visit us today.
Take away a memento of your experience with a BNG art book: Impressions of Bermuda or Bermuda National Gallery: An Introduction.
For more information: www.bng.bm or call (441) 295-9428.
