The Gannochy Trust Project – Update

The Gannochy Trust project is in its final year, working with the P6 pupils from nine schools in and around Perth. This year, the schools had the opportunity to visit “Waters Rising”  and will be visiting “Macbeth”  at Perth Museum, and the “GLASS” exhibition at Perth Art Gallery.

In February, Marlise Richmond, a local freelance Artist and Printmaker who runs her own print company, ‘Three Bears Print‘, ran tours of “Waters Rising” followed by an arty workshop. The pupils drew inspiration from the Myths and Floods gallery, along with the local impact of flooding and how to have your voice heard concerning safe and successful activism, by designing their own climate activism posters/signs.

The inspiration for the workshop came after viewing the protest sign by Bridget, who was 8 years old (now 14 years old), as pictured below in the “Waters Rising” exhibition. The placard depicts the Earth as a melting ice cream cone and was created for the School Strike for Climate protests, and again at a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament on 15th February 2019.

“My design was inspired by School Strike for Climate protests around the world, thinking about the climate emergency, I could imagine the Earth melting like an ice cream. When I took part in the protest, I was 8 years old and I felt involved in a really big thing, but I never imagined my artwork would end up in a museum collection or part of an exhibition. It’s a really lovely thought that future generations might see this movement and hopefully know that we made a difference.”

The focus of this poster workshop was to promote health and wellness,  by providing an opportunity for the pupil’s voices to be heard, and effectively and positively. The pupils enjoyed using the education space at Perth Museum, then walked back to school proudly displaying their posters to residents of Perth en route.