Sculpture created by Arlesey students makes final of global competition

The year 8 students at Etonbury Academy competed against 4,500 entries from 15 different countries to reach the final 15 of the David Shepherd Global Canvas Children’s Art Competition 2018.

Their artwork was displayed at the Natural History Museum where the global winner was due to be announced by qualified vet and CBeebies ‘Minibeast Adventure with Jess’ presenter, Jess French.

The students produced a collaborative sculptural piece in response to this year’s theme ‘Into the Wild’, and illustrates the students’ concerns about the decline of the bee population.

As part of the development of the sculpture the students took part in two workshops. One was run by their history teacher, who is a beekeeper and he shared his knowledge with the students about the decline in the bee population, and the other was a day long workshop where they made their response.

The fragmented honeycomb is suspended from a frame to convey the fragility and collapse of bee colonies. The drawings show live bees attempting to work around the hardship they may experience if this decline continues. The blackened cells filled with photographs and drawings of some of the causes, the others are filled with charred drawings of decaying flowers, fruit and vegetables to communicate the impact this may have on our world.

Etonbury’s subject leader of art, Kate Parsons, said: “This gave the students the opportunity to really understand the cause and effects related to this environmental issue and to photograph some of the bees and parasites that he had brought in.”

Student Charlotte Ramsey said: “This is a collaborative piece - we all drew and made different elements that we then brought together. This piece is about how rapidly the bee population is declining, and how it is vital that we try to maintain or even increase numbers to save the environment. We want to encourage industries to stop using pesticides before it is too late.”