Last week 5 schools of AKOE Educació Coop. V:  Escuela 2, Escola La Masia, Comenius centre Educatiu, Escola Les Carolines, El Drac  participated in art project. The theme of this project is to introduce children what is the Upcycled Art and how to look creatively at the garbage problem in the world. Recycling has become an essential action to protect the environment. The creative intervention helps to create a value. The emergence of an artistic movement known as recycled art (what was introduced) — upcycled art— that is currently inspiring many artists around the world with its critical message regarding excessive consumption and environmental pollution.

This type of art seeks to transform waste such as paper, plastics, rubber into works of art. The concept, therefore, goes beyond the conventional recycling of materials by creating objects that exceed the economic, cultural and social value of the original product.

During the presentation 3rd and 4th grade students were introduced environmental issues such as plastic problem in the ocean, damage to aquatic animals and   scientistic’s sad predictions for the future, explained what we all together can do on a daily basis to stop this problem and revealed how artists solve this problem with upcycled art.  Children were asked to bring some waste from home: plastic bags, old journals, newspapers, different packaging they can collect per weekend. From these materials they were creating collages on marine theme trying different presented techniques.  More than 250 children took part in these activities during the week, they were working in groups to show, that just working together and thinking in the same way we can do so much to help keep Earth clean. This movement is a very interesting educational tool to raise awareness in society, especially among children, regarding the consequences of our actions on the environment and the importance of recycling.

Project manager Neringa Grigarienė from Lithuania is grateful to the cooperative for their cooperation and hopes the children not only found the works attractive for their artistic value, but they be also felt motivated by contributing to the planet’s welfare giving the materials a second life they would otherwise not have had. A second part of the project awaits where children’s works can be seen by a wider audience.

As Plato has said ,,Education is teaching our children to desire the right things’’.