Butterfly art installation on display at Cambridge museum
It's been created by school children to raise awareness of climate change
Last updated 24th May 2024
School children have helped create hundreds of paper butterflies on display at a Cambridge Museum, in an attempt to spark conversation about climate chance.
Pupils were inspired to create 'The Butterfly Effect' installation at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences after learning how low butterfly numbers can act as an early warning sign of changes in the environment.
The butterflies, at Cambridge University's Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, are on show alongside cardboard protest banners.
One of them reads "This is our planet let's fight 4 it", while another - held by a 13-foot-tall iguanodon dinosaur skeleton at the museum - says "Life is in the balance".
Artist Hilary Cox Condron worked with children, aged from 11 to 16, from Parkside Community College in Cambridge on the project.
Students attended after-school workshops in their free time as part of the project, which began last November, including the history of collecting climate data and how fossil evidence can show changing climates.
Nicola Skipper, Sedgwick Museum education co-ordinator who led the project, said: "It's been a real joy working with the students from Parkside and they've created some striking artistry for visitors to experience amongst our collection.
"The Sedgwick Museum has rocks and fossils that show over 1,700 million years of global climate change and it's vital young people engage with the climate crisis.
"This programme was created to connect the upcoming generation with our world-leading climate scientists and to give the students a space and voice within the museum.
"It's been wonderful to see them respond to it so enthusiastically and creatively."