The secret language of flowers: Insights from an outdoor, arts-based intervention designed to connect primary school children to locally accessible nature
Arts-based activities provide a powerful way to develop an emotional connection to nature
Interventions designed to connect children to nature can take many different forms and occur in a wide variety of contexts. This study explored an outdoor, arts-based intervention with children from a primary English school located in a disadvantaged neighborhood.
The intervention was conducted by Urban Wilderness, a not-for-profit organization working to connect children and young people from low SES areas to locally accessible green space. During the intervention, 10 pupils (age 9-10) from the school worked with two Urban Wilderness facilitators, an artist, a teacher, and a teaching assistant to help create a sculpture to be exhibited in a local park as part of a family festival. The children participated in three afternoon workshops, each lasting two and a half hours. The first workshop included an overview of the project and a child-led walk around the park where the sculpture was to be exhibited. During the walk, the children used digital cameras and sketch books to record elements of the natural environment which might be used in the creation of the sculpture. The second and third workshops included artist-led guidance on techniques the children could use to further develop their ideas for the sculpture. The children’s ideas and artistic creations were incorporated in the sculpture and displayed during the family festival attended by 750 people. Sources of data collected throughout the project included field notes, sound recordings, and photographs. Semi-structured interviews with the artist before and after the project were also used as part of the data collection process.
An analysis of the data indicated that this arts-based intervention fostered close attention to the surrounding environment and helped the children see the park differently. This intervention also supported the children’s understandings of nature and helped them establish an emotional connection to it. The artwork created by the children indicated that their experiences and observations in the park were sources of inspiration. Informal discussions with the children during the project indicated that walking and talking outside was key to enabling discussions about their personal connection to natural spaces.
This research shows how child-led arts-based activities can be used by practitioners to connect children to nature.
Citation
Hallam, J., Gallagher, L., Owen, K., (2022). The secret language of flowers: Insights from an outdoor, arts-based intervention designed to connect primary school children to locally accessible nature. Environmental Education Research, 28(1),
