Universe Awareness (UNAWE) is pleased to announce a new Global UNAWE Painting Project, in which a large canvas will be gradually decorated with children’s paintings of the Earth during a worldwide tour.
The project is the brainchild of UNAWE Canada’s Eric Chisholm, Manager of Public Outreach at the National Research Council of Canada's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, which is based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Eric presented his idea for the Global Painting Project at the first EU Universe Awareness (EU-UNAWE) International Workshop, which was held last month in Leiden, the Netherlands.
The theme for the paintings is ‘What does the Earth look like from space?’. “All of the children will be asked the same question, but each painting will be shaped by how the children view their place, and that of their nation, in the world around us,” says Eric. The project supports UNAWE’s vision of using astronomy to promote global citizenship to young children. “By creating a work of art together, about the planet that we all call home, the painting will connect children from around the world,” says Eric.
The canvas will travel to 12 countries across 4 continents: Canada, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Timor-Leste and Tanzania. The first stop on the journey will be the Netherlands, before the canvas heads off with the UNAWE team to Timor-Leste for the Transit of Venus.
The Global UNAWE Painting Project is expected to take at least six months to complete. The final painting will be hung in museums in Canada and will be available for display overseas. Furthermore, Eric plans to create a short movie that documents the epic journey that the canvas has taken, created from footage shot on a camcorder that will be shipped with the painting materials to each host.
For more information about the project, or for updates as the journey unfolds, please contact ericmchisholm@gmail.com
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