- If you work with young people, feel free to introduce the prize to your group, check out our online resources, and get in touch if you'd like to book an artist's workshop to help inspire ideas and experimentation.
- If you are a journalist and this is relevant to your work, please find our press release pasted below. We'd be grateful for a feature.
- If you have any recommendations of journalists / other networks to share this with, please do let me know - I'd love to hear of other sources for dissemination.
- If you know people (teachers, kids) who might be interested in taking part, please spread the word.
SHUFFLE FESTIVAL SCHOOL’S PRIZE 2017
Young East Londoners invited to take a creative stand on air pollution in Greenpeace backed art and science competition, with Wellcome Trust judge Tom Ziessen, and prize trip to the Eden Project
Shuffle Festival, where the arts, sciences and food come together in London’s most urban woodland Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, invites young people to develop creative responses to air pollution in London, inspired by this year’s theme Public / Private.
This unique prize asks 9 to 12 year olds to understand the science of air pollution, question the implications for city life, and make imaginative works, images, stories and films to explore their personal experience and even inspire adults to do something about it.
Air pollution has increasingly been the subject of reports around the city of London. These have covered the risk to young people: with schools close to roads emitting illegal levels of pollutants, children are especially vulnerable to toxicity. In the draft Air Quality Plan, poor air quality is described as the “largest environmental risk to public health in the UK”. According to a Royal College of Physicians report around 40,000 deaths are attributable to exposure to outdoor air pollution each year in the UK. Solutions are emerging, from local campaigning, air quality trackers and apps, to sustainable city planning and benches which produce clean air. But these are not yet mainstream, or reflected in government policy.
For the Shuffle School’s Prize, young people are encouraged to examine air pollution with creativity and purpose. The prize aims to bring about a sense of hope, empowerment and control, giving an opportunity for self-expression and action around the key issues involved.
To help inspire ideas and experimentation, online resources are available, and schools are being offered artist workshops run by Shuffle. Young people can submit an idea independently, or with their school. All entries will be shared on the big screen at the festival. Winning projects receive a trip to the Eden Project, the largest rainforest in captivity, giving young people a further platform to explore how we are interconnected with each other and the space around us.
In support of the prize, Anna Jones, clean air campaigner at Greenpeace said: “Air pollution may be invisible, but it’s impact is felt right across London by people young and old. It is particularly bad for children and young people, because their lungs are still growing. Levels of harmful pollution are now so high in London that it’s been called a public health emergency by leading medics. The Mayor has made tackling it a priority, and schools across the city are taking action to protect kids. It’s vital that young people understand and engage with the issue of air pollution in London, because London is their city and they can make a real difference by speaking out.”
Shuffle Festival is supported by MUBI, Canary Wharf Group, QED Productions, Panalux and East End Homes.
Website and Submissions: www.shufflefestival.com/
Twitter: @ShuffleFestival
Facebook: www.facebook.com/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/shuffle_
For further information contact:
Kate MacTiernan (Creative Director): [log in to unmask]
Emilie Glazer (Science Programmer): [log in to unmask]
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