The Arts Depot Trust – Future Cities, Sustainability & The Built Environment

The Ove Arup Foundation has announced support for a further Arts Depot project, based in Barnet, North London.

For several years Arts Depot has been commissioning artists and designers to work with schools helping children and young people to consider environmental sustainability within the context of the built environment. The project engages with classes from one primary, one secondary and one SEN school who consider different materials and their impact on the environment and also the availability of recycled materials, new technologies and approaches to creating more sustainable communities. 

Working to a theme, about 75 pupils design and build structures that are then exhibited in Arts Depot’s Apthorp Gallery during December. The exhibitions are interactive, bright and engaging and normally see a footfall of 5,000 visitors – generally families coming to our Christmas show. In the Autumn of 2022 LAS theatre will work with the pupils over a series of three or four workshops in each school exploring the theme of Future Cities. Pupils will consider what cities of the future should look like, how they can be sustainable, and will then build a prototype from recycled materials. A film will be made of a large puppet responding to the new prototype landscape which will form part of the exhibition.