13 March 2023
Find out more about this student-artist collaborative programme ahead of their 'SUPERBLOOM' showcase.
‘How do we support students to develop hope and a sense of agency around the climate emergency?’
‘How can we help students develop transferable skills that they can use during their time at university and beyond?’
‘How can we support student wellbeing and help them find their community?’
These questions, emerging from a series of conversations in 2022 between students from the Climate Action Network, King’s Culture and King’s Sustainability - resulted in the founding of King’s Culture Climate Collective.
Across the 2022/23 academic year, this new initiative has seen King’s students collaborate with artists to explore conversations about the climate emergency that centre the student voice and amplify their perspectives in the fight for positive change.
Members of the Collective – which was founded on the core principles of collaboration and creative thinking - have participated in a programme of workshops and events that foster vital skills of creative action and community building, with the aim of nurturing the professional development of King’s students as emerging social and cultural leaders.
I am inspired to contribute to addressing climate change, and think of how my own choices impact nature.
Student Participant
In December, a sub-group of 20 students was formed, called ‘Groundwater Artists’. Across a three-month intensive beginning in January 2023, this Groundwater group – composed of students studying a range of subjects including geography, law, medicine, management and philosophy - having been working together to explore climate activism through art. As a group, and working with artist-activists Beccy McCray and Angela YT Chan, they have developed their own work in a co-creation process.
"I really enjoy sharing ideas and knowledge with students from different backgrounds. There is a need for this diversity when creating art."
Student Participant
The Groundwater artists have explored climate activism and developed their unique creative voices, whilst investigating themes including water power and security, biomimicry and natural systems.
"The values of our artwork can be optimistic, empowering and showing the history of nature and how it changes with time."
Student Participant
The result of this Groundwater intensive is SUPERBLOOM, an exhibition presented by King’s Culture, in The Arcade, Bush House, 30 March - 6 April. This vibrant and experimental showcase, marking the conclusion of activity from the 22/23 Collective cohort, will investigate how we can better support creative climate action and generate new visions for the future. The display also includes a contribution from the King’s Climate Action Network, and will include displays from KCLSU student societies.
King’s Culture, working with King’s Sustainability, is proud to work with these pioneering artists and enthusiastic students to foster such generative creative relationships, and we look forward to celebrating their achievements in the final showcase. As King's students gain interdisciplinary, collaborative and problem-solving skills, we are able to ensure their voices are at the centre of conversations for positive climate futures.
Beatrice Pembroke, Director, King’s Culture
Dates: 30 & 31 March, 3-6 April 2023
Opening times: 10.00 – 18.00
Address: The Arcade, Bush House (South Entrance), King’s College London, The Strand, London, WC2B 4PJ
Free entry
Angela YT Chan is an artist, curator and researcher with an interest in power in relation to the inequity, colonial histories, data science, rethinking geographies and speculative fiction.
Beccy McCray is an artist activist with a playful and socially engaged practice that uses whatever media necessary to create human moments and imaginative acts of resistance.
Executive Director, Culture
A student showcase from the Culture Climate Collective celebrating collaborative working, idea germination and climate activism...