Now in its 5th year, Kids Creative Lab, a project by Peggy Guggenheim and OVS, is back at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni

 

Kids Creative Lab V has been a record-breaking edition. Over 1,400,000 kids, 50,000 classes, 6,000 schools, together once more for an educational project that is born of collaboration between the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and OVS, dedicated to primary schools in Italy and now involved in the new, great adventure that is all about sustainability and protecting the marine ecosystem, together with its two internationally famous “guests”: artists Lucy + Jorge Orta. Kids Creative Lab also enjoys the patronage of Venice City Council and this year has received a letter of commendation from the Minister for Education, Universities and Research, Valeria Fedeli.  

 

After dealing over the years in subjects such as the relationship between art and fashion, ecology, nature, agriculture, food, and biodiversity, this fifth edition of Kids Creative Lab is all about a multi-disciplinary project, focused on the current and urgent subject of sustainability, of its implications linked on one side to ecology and respect for the environment, and on the other, education and the development of future generations with regard to these subjects. This is the start of the precious collaboration with Lucy + Jorge Orta, artists renowned internationally for their commitment to projects that raise public awareness about sustainable development for the planet and who have made participation the foundation of their artistic production. Lucy + Jorge Orta, together with the Department of Education of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection have devised and developed a creative workshop, to be held in class, focusing on the theme of water and the increasingly fragile balance of the marine ecosystem, thanks to the use of their Artist’s Kit “SostenART”.  

SostenART is a reflection around sustainable, as well as artistic re-use of plastic and at the same time, an invitation to send out an SOS to safeguard life in the oceans through a metaphorical message in a bottle. The workshop asked participants to write messages in groups, using the “Cadavre exquis” technique, a game much enjoyed by André Breton, theorist behind Surrealism and by the surrealist artists themselves. It consists of composing a message with the contribution of several people, each one with no knowledge of what the others have written. The text written with this technique was then translated according to a colour code and placed in a plastic bottle. All of the bottles containing the colourful encrypted messages written by the children have been used to create a single, large installation, a wonderful marinescape, curated by Lucy + Jorge Orta and exhibited on occasion of the exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection from 30 March to 17 April 2017. To complete this extraordinary collective work, there will also be three pieces by the artist duo: OrtaWater- Antarctica, Life Line- Survival Kit, OrtaWater- Studies Fluivial Intervention Unit are the titles of the creations by Lucy + Jorge Orta to provide further food for thought about the subjects of sustainability, safeguarding our water resources and protecting our marine environment.  

 

We hope that the artistic practices put in place with this workshop and experimentation with plastic, have been able to highlight the message about using plastic, especially waste and water bottles”, say artists Lucy + Jorge Orta. “In some way it is a matter of raising awareness among people. If, working with Kids Creative Lab, over a million children have handled bottles, thought about where they come from, where they are going and how we can be more aware of recycling and the environment, then it will be truly fantastic”. 

 

“This is the fifth year working with OVS on the joint Kids Creative Lab project, which focuses on children’s education and growth”, says Philip Rylands, director of the museum in Venice. “The themes of this fifth edition are particularly current and we believe that raising awareness with the future generations on the subject of ecology and safeguarding the planet are extremely important issues today. The important participation in the project of two internationally famous artists like Lucy + Jorge Orta makes us even prouder of the work we have been doing with OVS since 2012”.   

"The new edition of OVS Kids Creative Lab” says Stefano Beraldo, CEO of OVS, “weaves together the ideas of art and of educating children on the subjects of sustainability and protecting the environment and it does so by involving two artists who are well known for their commitment to these areas. This project, which is developed in conjunction with the prestigious Peggy Guggenheim Collection, thanks also to the contribution of our sales network, continues to meet with increasing interest and an incredible number of participants from schools, which goes to show the importance of art and creativity in children’s education”.  

The IC Dante-Galiani di San Giovanni Rotondo School in Foggia was judged to be the winner with the highest number of participants in the project, 658 students from 30 classes. The prize was a training course for pupils and teachers from EF Education First: two International weeks for the children, online training for the teachers, and teaching materials. The school will also receive 500 re-usable bottles by Dopper, to incentivise sustainable water consumption and raise awareness with children about the impact of waste from disposable plastic.