Fun and learning in environmental art awards
For immediate release: Friday 22 July 2005
An environmental art award that usually attracts over 400 entries is a “fantastic and fun” way for children to learn
about the natural world, says the organiser.
Now in its 8th year, Environment Bay of Plenty’s annual art awards encourage students to think about their relationship
with the environment and how they affect it, explains coordinator Esther Mae. Many teachers also view the event as an
opportunity for learning and organise class lessons around it.
The awards have an annual theme, around which entrants base their artwork. This year’s theme supports the Conservation
Week topic: “Everything is connected”.
“We know that everything in the environment and the world around us is connected in some way. So every action that we
take has an effect somewhere down the track, whether positive or negative,” Ms Mae says. “Entrants will be expressing
this concept in the artwork they create.”
She encourages teachers to run a small teaching unit around Conservation Week or to delve into the theme in lessons. The
latest Pollution Busters Club newsletter, which is posted on Environment Bay of Plenty’s website, contains activities
suitable for classroom use.
But it’s mostly about “having fun and being creative”, she adds.
Open to all Bay of Plenty students, the award is split up into four categories this year, junior primary, upper primary,
intermediate and junior secondary. Prizes are awarded for first, second and third in each category, with a prize for the
winning school as well. Paengaroa artist, Luke Hollis, joint winner of the Molly Morpeth Award in Whakatane, will be
judging the event.
Entries close on Thursday 9 September, with exhibitions of winning artworks held throughout the region in early October.
Environment Bay of Plenty’s Esther Mae starts to take down last year’s framed artworks in preparation for a new group of
environmental art award winners. This artwork, in the stairwell of the council’s Whakatane office, is by Jenee
Tibshraeny of Bethlehem College.