High Life Highland’s Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, Highland Folk Museum and Countryside Rangers have joined The Wild Escape, a major new project uniting hundreds of museums with schools and families to find nature in museums. Led by national art charity Art Fund and with support from Arts Council England, hundreds of museums, galleries and historic houses are coming together for the largest ever collaboration between UK museums.
Pupils from Bishop Eden and St Joseph’s Primary Schools in Inverness and Newtonmore Primary have worked alongside museum staff, Countryside Rangers and with Highland artist Claire Macdonald to explore the wildlife at their local museum. They have discovered local animals including red squirrels, pine martens and stoats and the importance of protecting the biodiversity on their doorstep.
The museums will celebrate World Earth Day with Wild Escape events on Saturday 22nd of April.
At Inverness Museum, High Life Highland’s Countryside Ranger John Orr will be in the galleries from 11am to 12 for ‘Ask a Ranger’, with quick interactive games exploring biodiversity. From 11am to 3pm there will be the chance to try a simple wildlife craft with artist Claire Macdonald in and view the fantastic model boxes, animal characters and animations created by pupils participating in the Wild Escape Project.
At the Highland Folk Museum see the amazing animal artworks created by Newtonmore Primary School pupils. From 11am to 3pm there will be the chance to find out more about the wildlife that lives at the museum with another of High Life Highland’s Countryside Rangers Saranne Bish, and then see if you can find all of the animals in a Wild Escape trail around the open-air site.
High Life Highland’s Museums Curatorial Manager, Lorna Cruikshank said, “High Life Highland is delighted to take part in the national project enabling local children to find out more about the animals living in their area. By working with our Museums and Countryside Rangers, children have had the opportunity to see wild animals close up and to create fabulous story boxes imagining a restored natural world. We look forward to welcoming visitors to our Wild Escape family activities at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery and the Highland Folk Museum on Saturday 22nd April.”
Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said, “I’m thrilled that Inverness Museum & Art Gallery and the Highland Folk Museum is joining hundreds of organisations from the Outer Hebrides to Folkestone to connect thousands of children with the natural world through the UK’s truly great museums. Thanks to the invaluable support of Arts Council England, the Wild Escape will empower families and children across the UK to visit and discover our wonderful museums, whilst taking positive action to picture a better future for our wildlife.”
