Children's Art-Science Events at the National Museum of Scotland Highlight Data for the Children Collaborative's Children’s Climate Risk Index Project.

In February 2024, the National Museum of Scotland hosted a series of three children's art-science collaborative events as a part of Data for Children Collaborative's ‘Children’s Climate Risk Index’ project in partnership with UNICEF. These events were aimed at raising awareness about climate change, its impacts on children, and their aspirations for the future.  

This project concluded that the climate crisis is a children’s rights crisis, which led to the inclusion of young people to enable them to advocate for themselves across these events. Members of the public were welcomed to engage in educational and creative activities. 

The events included: 

• An open day for families. 

• A half-day session with young people from Granton Youth. 

• A full day with Scotland’s Rainbow Families. 

Attendees began with a talk by Dr Sian Henley from the University of Edinburgh, who discussed climate change and its specific effects on children. Following the talk, visitors toured the Museum’s Rising Tide exhibition, which focuses on climate change in the Pacific. The day concluded with an art workshop led by artist Laura Johnson, where participants created fabric quilt squares expressing their feelings about climate change and their hopes for the future. 

In celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd, an online version of these events was launched, making them accessible to schools across Scotland and beyond. The quilt squares from the workshops will be sewn together into a large nationwide community climate quilt, which will be displayed at the Museum for a year, serving as a powerful symbol of public awareness and hope regarding climate change. 

For more information on the events, visit: Digital schools sessions | National Museums Scotland.