5th edition of Kids Creative Lab the project by OVS

 

 

It’s a record 5th edition of Kids Creative Lab. Over 1,400,000 kids, 50,000 classes, and 6,000 schools have joined the educational project organized by OVS and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and dedicated to the primary schools of Italy. Participants are now ready to depart on a great new adventure to learn about sustainability and the safeguard of marine ecosystems, in the company of two internationally renowned “guests”, the artists Lucy + Jorge Orta. Kids Creative Lab has the patronage of Venice City Council.  

 

If previous editions have addressed the relationship between art and fashion, ecology, nature, agriculture, food and biodiversity, this 5th edition of Kids Creative Lab addresses a  multidisciplinary project centered on the urgent topic of sustainability and its ecological, environmental and educational implications, the latter in relation to the education of future generations on such topics. Such was the foundation for the collaboration with artists Lucy + Jorge Orta, who are internationally renowned for their commitment to raise public awareness on the sustainable development of the planet, and for the participatory nature of their art. Lucy + Jorge Orta and the Education Department of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection devised a creative workshop on the topic of water and the increasingly vulnerable balance of the marine ecosystem. The workshop is based on the “SostenART” Artist’s Kit.  

SostenART is designed to encourage reflection on the sustainable reuse of plastic for purposes not necessarily related to art. It is also an invitation, an SOS to safeguard the life of the oceans through a metaphorical message in a bottle. The workshop invites participants to join together and write a text using the technique of the “cadavre exquis”, a game which was favored by André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, and was popular among Surrealists. Several people contribute to the message without knowing what the others wrote before them. The message is then color-coded and inserted in a plastic bottle. All the bottles containing the brightly colored cryptic messages will then be used to create a large installation, a delightful seascape curated by Lucy + Jorge Orta which will be presented at the exhibition held at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection from 30 March to 17 April 2017.  

 

“We hope the practice will trigger, through the workshop, the experimentation and the modelling of the material, the message about the use of plastic, and in particular about the plastic waste and the water bottle” note Lucy + Jorge Orta. “Somehow, it is about awareness amongst  people. If with Kids Creative Lab over a million children will be manipulating a bottle thinking about where it came from, where it’s going to, and how to be more conscious of its recycling and the environment, it would be fantastic”. 

“This is the fifth collaboration with OVS on Kids Creative Lab, a project focusing on children’s education and development,” comments Philip Rylands, director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. “The theme of this fifth edition is quite topical. The present moment requires making future generations aware of ecological matters and of the need to safeguard the planet. Moreover, the participation of two renowned artists like Lucy + Jorge Orta makes me even prouder of the collaboration with OVS which started in 2012."   

"The latest edition of OVS Kids Creative Lab,” states Stefano Beraldo CEO of OVS, “interweaves the themes of children’s art and education with sustainability and the protection of the environment, and it does so with the involvement of two artists who are famous for their commitment to these issues. The project, which is in collaboration with the prestigious Peggy Guggenheim Collection and involves our entire sales network, has registered a growing interest and an incredible record of participation of schools, thus confirming the importance of art and creativity in children’s education.”  

Teaching materials and a video tutorial on the workshop are available in the Artist’s Kit section of the kidscreativelab.ovs.it website. In order to upload the results of the workshop in the Gallery section of the website you need to enter the restricted area, where you can discover the work created by other participants. 

 

The school which participates in the final exhibition with the highest number of children and classes will be awarded a training course for kids and teachers by EF Education First. The prize consists of two International Weeks for students, online training for teachers, and teaching materials. In addition, the school will receive 500 re-usable water-bottles from Dopper, to encourage sustainable consumption of water and raise kids’ awareness on the impact of disposable plastic waste