On 25 February 2023, Aberdeen-based artist and former Cove Park resident Caitlin Dick taught young people aged 7+ how to transform an everyday paper recycling pile into beautiful hand-made seed paper.
After learning the basics of paper making, participants experimented with a touch of nature by adding leaves, flowers and colours – making each piece of paper unique. Caitlin also led discussions about the climate crisis and climate anxiety by asking the students prompting questions such as:
- Where does paper come from?
- Why are trees important?
- What happens to the paper once we have finished with it?
- Which small and large animals live in trees, or depend on trees?
- If we use a lot of paper, what happens to the trees?
- If we use a lot of paper, what happens to the animals and birds?
- Does anyone know what the words ‘habitat’ and ‘biodiversity ‘mean?
- How would habitat and biodiversity be affected if we cut down trees?
- How does that make you feel?
This workshop was devised and developed by Caitlin Dick with support from Cove Park’s Curator of Engagement Emma Henderson and will form part of NAARCA’s pedagogy toolkit that will be published and publicly available from Spring 2024.
Workshop images provided by Emma Henderson and with parental consent.