Introduction
To support 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, the Seeds of Hope project will inspire young people from the UNESCO ASPnet group of 12,000 educational institutions across 182 countries and key partners (educators, artists, scientists and others) to create legacy arts and culture projects for the benefit of local, national and international communities.
A key partner in supporting this project is Kew Millennium Seed Bank Partnerships (MSBP) which has links with 190 countries.
Download 'Seeds of Hope' Presentation
Objectives
- To connect young people with the arts, sciences, local and international communities
- To strengthen awareness of the value of seeds for the planet and humanity to support a sustainable, bio-diverse future
- To create inspiring seed stories and artworks in collaboration with local or international community partners in order to enhance and benefit the lives of others
- To 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.
Part One: Creating Seeds of Hope Stories
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 such research they will discover what a seed is and, 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.
Part Two: Creating Seeds of Hope Legacy 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. 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.
Creating legacy spaces or gardens will reflect how and why greater seed diversity brings benefits to others.
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).
Part Three: International Sharing of Legacy Seeds of Hope Stories
The added impact value of all the arts projects will be how these 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 (date to be announced early 2025) will host an international conference where students will share their learning and creative experiences of the Seeds of Hope journey.
Different forms of dissemination through the UNESCO website and social media channels will be used to maximise the global reach and impact of young people.
The value of sharing such stories internationally is to 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.
The Arts & Culture for Peace Initiative encourages action that supports the three UNESCO ASPnet Action Areas and at the same time will benefit individual children and our wider communities.
Teachers’ Notes
Participants should read the generic introduction about the Initiative, the practical notes and also the recording and sharing of activities (see tabs to the left of this page)
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 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.
Resources
The creation of new artistic Seeds of Hope outcomes should be achieved using expert resources (see links below), and existing local 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.
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 then key ASPnet Action Areas.
Contact
If you would like to discuss your participation 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 your National Coordinator.
UK ASPnet National Coordinator
Ms Ann BEATTY
ASPnet National Coordinator. Chief Executive, The Steve Sinnott Foundation, Arnold House, 15 Clarendon Road, Watford, WD17 1JR.
(+44)1923 230208 or (+44) 7958 696316.