UNESCO Associated Schools Network

Finding peace with ourselves and our planet

The UNESCO UK Associated Schools Programme Network (ASPnet) Arts & Culture for Peace Initiative was inspired initially by the UK-Japan Between the Stones project and pilot projects by five Coventry primary schools.

This is an ongoing Initiative to enable schools worldwide to participate. The Initiative was officially launched at the International Virtual ‘Connecting for Peace’ UNESCO ASPnet UK Conference.

The UNESCO ASPnet Arts and Culture for Peace Initiative focuses on important ASPnet Action Areas related to ‘peace’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘intercultural learning and heritage’ and supports the UN Sustainability Development Goals.

The aim is for young people around the world to work on ‘transformative’ arts and culture for peace and sustainability, which convey the importance of living more peacefully and sustainably with nature, ourselves and our planet. It should:

• Demonstrate that peace can prove to be stronger than conflict & division
• Illustrate that ’from acorns mighty oak trees do grow’ – individual creative elements can be shared and combined to produce creative group outcomes by young global citizens, which can benefit wider communities
• Give voice to our young people – the future belongs to them and their ideas about how we can strengthen the ASPnet Action Areas matter and can support the international community effectively by creating opportunities from the challenges which lay ahead.

The initial phase of the Arts and Culture for Peace initiative produced the following outcomes:

• First UK Legacy Arts and Culture for Peace Project – the Coventry Young Ambassadors Islands of Peace Japanese Garden opened to the Public by Japanese Ambassador to the UK and Mayor of Coventry in 2021
• UNESCO UK Arts and Culture for Peace Initiative launched in UK and globally in 2022
• Delegation of nine countries – The Gambia, South Korea, Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Oman, South Korea, Japan and the UK visited Japan to celebrate 70th anniversary of UNESCO in September 2023
• Launching of the Seeds of Hope for a Better Future Project in 2024

The UNESCO UK Associated Schools Programme Network (ASPnet) Seeds of Hope for a Better Future project supports UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals and key action areas - promoting peace, sustainability and intercultural learning and heritage, especially in the context of the challenges of climate change.

This project will inspire young people and key partners (educators, artists, scientists and others) to create legacy arts and culture projects for the benefit of local, national and international communities.

View the launch presentation

ASPnet connects more than 12,000 educational institutions in over 180 countries providing pre-primary, primary, secondary, technical or vocational education, or teacher training.

This project encourages schools to work with partners that are committed to supporting schools and young people. These might be community groups, arts and scientific organisations, such as international seed banks.

Many such groups already have programmes from which young can draw inspiration and they may also already offer public resources to support schools. One such partner is Kew Millennium Seed Bank. Like ASPnet it is part of an international family and has links with researchers and seed banks in 190 countries.

This is an opportunity for schools to collaborate with others to create artistic outcomes that demonstrate and highlight their support to local communities. Working together to face the challenges and impact of climate change around the world is a shared vision - it needs all of our efforts to make a difference.

• Connect young people with the arts, sciences, local and international communities
• Strengthen awareness of the value of seeds for the planet and humanity to support a sustainable, bio-diverse future
• Create inspiring seed stories and artworks in collaboration with local or international community partners in order to enhance and benefit the lives of others
• Share Seeds of Hope stories and experiences internationally through the UNESCO ASPnet network to inform and give voice to young people on the impact of climate change to local communities around the world.

Working together with educators, artists, scientists and others young people will:

Research seeds of their choice from the themes identified. These themes will inspire young people to use their ‘seed awareness’ material to create and illustrate their own seed story or other artwork. Through this research they will discover what a seed is, for example:

• Its value to the world and how/whether it provides food security, biodiversity, sustainable development and/or other benefits.
• Its geographical origins and any key global aspects about the chosen seeds/species and whether it is rare or common in how it relates to local, national and international communities
• The likely impact of climate change and other factors on the chosen seeds in the short, medium and long term.

Create Seeds of Hope stories using a range of artistic expressions.

• A seed story will aim to illustrate, through sharing seed awareness, the need for humanity to play a responsible role in securing and maintaining a bio-diverse future for the planet.
• The goal of these artworks is for young people to create the most interesting legacy projects by engaging with local/national/international communities and where possible working with established artists. Artwork examples could include:
• Art works, which can be a gallery exhibition or community art work for long-term display in a prominent outdoor space/public indoor area, and/or a touring exhibition.
• Illustrated poems/short stories as the focus of presentation for local poetry/story festivals or widely circulated through a variety of print media, such as books/flip books, posters, leaflets or other graphic formats.
• Digital illustrations using photography/film/animation circulated through social and other public media formats or exhibitions
• Performance and/or installation art, such as a young people’s play/opera/musical theatre/dance/installation art/sculpture park.

All artwork will make a contribution to the project’s mission, aims and objectives, and be valued, recorded and shared via the UNESCO National Coordinators.

Young people will have the opportunity to connect their seed stories and artworks to local communities by creating or working with existing allotments, gardens or other open spaces. Just as every seed is important, every young person’s contribution is important and every collaboration is also important. The sharing of the outcomes brings the added benefit to wider audiences and future generations.

Creating legacy spaces or gardens will reflect how and why greater seed diversity brings benefits to others that can last over a long period. Connecting young people artistically with existing projects that may already be establishing a foundation for such work can also give greater national and international relevance to such efforts and thereby added value for all parties could be gained.

If young people want to develop a legacy space, they may wish to engage with other partners early on in the process (see examples under part one).

Different forms of dissemination will be used to maximise the global reach and impact of young people’s voices. UNESCO UK will discuss with partners to find ways for young people’s creative seed story outcomes to be digitally sown to create a UNESCO ASPnet ‘Seeds of Hope for a Better Future’ global pathway map.

The added impact value of all the arts projects being seen together can be shared as widely as possible to benefit local, national and international communities. How can seed stories be ‘grown’ from an individual seed story into an event that can benefit others? How many groups could be encouraged to submit - just one seed story?

In 2025 the UNESCO ASPnet UK will host an international conference where students will share their learning and creative experiences of the Seeds of Hope journey.

Sharing such stories internationally will demonstrate and strengthen our recognition and celebration of the rich diverse heritage that is essential to the natural world, humanity and for the long-term sustainability of our planet.

Participants should start by reading the introduction about the Initiative, the Guidance notes and the notes on recording and sharing of activities.

Participants may also find the following two documents helpful in exploring ways to implement the project across different seasons of the year.

Four Seasons Overview

Four Seasons Detail

Quality

• Students are aiming to achieve artistically diverse and beautiful outcomes in completing, or incorporating this project working with artists, local communities and climate change experts. Students should aim to communicate the essence of climate change impact on the key ASPnet Action Areas.

Timescale

• Schools can register at any time.
• The time needed to work on this activity could be as little as one class session, or it could be undertaken over a period, depending on the length of time teachers wish to give to the research element and how this may be connected to their curriculum and/or to the other parts of the whole initiative, or indeed a local community initiative.
• Initially we are keen to focus on developing projects that will deliver a major impact beginning in 2025 - greater value and impact will be gained by as many countries contributing project outcomes together to emphasis the need for urgent action
• Longer term benefits will be gained by projects focused on creating a legacy for local communities that will have an ongoing impact for future generations.
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Resources

• The creation of new artistic Seeds of Hope outcomes should be achieved using expert resources (see links below), and existing local resources. We are promoting a ‘less is more’ approach to reflect the theme of sustainability and access (not all schools have the same level of resources).
• Students and teachers should aim to be imaginative in their use of local resources, and the way they conceive their artistic projects to reflect the ASPnet Action Areas, including joining relevant local climate change initiatives if they exist locally.
• To enable the sharing of artistic outcomes internationally project leaders are asked to submit:
• a narrative description of the project of between 400-600 words
• a maximum number of artistically good quality photos 10
• if you have made a video which its central to your project upload it to a local site (school or community project, for example) and send a link only to the national coordinators to share on the UNESCO ASPnet Arts & Culture Initiative site.

Useful Links

• Kew Millennium Seed Bank
• Why do we save seeds? Kew Podcast
• Why do we need to protect seeds, and how will that help climate change? Kew Podcast
• Other useful links suggested by Kew’s Education Team
• Other resource material links will be added in future so please check back here for additional materials.

People Links

• If you want to ask questions related to this activity you can contact the UK UNESCO National Coordinator

Register your interest in joining the Seeds of Hope for a Better Future

If you would like to discuss participating in this initiative please register your interest by contacting the UK National Coordinator in the first instance who will be happy to explore how you might participate with you and your National Coordinator.

United Kingdom

Ms Ann BEATTY, ASPnet National Coordinator. Chief Executive, The Steve Sinnott Foundation, Arnold House, 15 Clarendon Road, Watford, WD17 1JR.
Phone: (+44)1923 230208. Mobile: (+44) 7958 696316. email: [email protected]

Outline schedule and resources

Schools decide their own schedule and draw on their own local communities and contacts for support and resources (if needed). They can also draw on the following resources to support their participation:

• online links to a range of resources from Kew Millennium Seed Bank and others
• webinars organised by ASPnet UK
• potential access, via the National Coordinators, to a voluntary group of mentors and artists if a clear need is identified*.

*These will be expanded if needed and as discussions and engagement with other countries and National Coordinators join the initiative.

Recording and Sharing Project Outcomes

Recording and sharing the engagement and output of these activities is not only a way to provide a good record of the students’ and teachers’ efforts for themselves and their local communities, but will also be the main means of sharing the outcomes with others and ASPnet members internationally.

If possible schools should connect with local photographers who support their efforts so high quality photos of the young people’s work can be recorded.

Creating these artistic and cultural outcomes will provide a means for society to appreciate what young voices have to say on these important thematic action areas.

Sharing activities internationally

The sharing of activities internationally should be as follows:

• the narrative description of the project should be between 400-600 words
• a maximum number of artistically good quality project photos 10
• if you have made a video which its central to your project upload it to a local site (school or community project, for example) and send a link only to the national coordinators to share on the Arts & Culture for Peace site.

If you or your school/organisation is interested in joining the Arts & Culture Initiative, Seeds of Hope Project the link below gives some additional practical notes and answers frequently asked questions.

Practical Notes / FAQs