This Earth Day: Take a voyage in the life of your role models

This Earth Day we take a look back at some of wonderful images created by young people at a workshop at the National Maritime Museum earlier this January, working with photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva and artist Jeanine Woollard.

Inspired by Evgenia’s recent work capturing the now iconic TIME Magazine’s cover celebrating Greta Thunberg as Person of the Year these young people were asked to consider who might be their role model – a person, real or make-believe, – who represents an idea or movement they are inspired by. And, with a range of artist materials and props from the museum, they recreated an imagined stop motion adventure of them at sea.

Readying ourselves for our next big ‘adventure’ as we emerge from the Covid crisis and strive for a better world is more important than ever. Imagination and inspiration is of course, a vital part of building this future.

We are currently developing a global programme to inspire and provoke vital conversations around what lies ahead; so watch this space over the coming weeks and months!

The workshop took place as part of Evgenia’s Invisible Dust Residency at the National Maritime Museum, working specifically in the Museum’s new Polar World gallery to collect inspiration from Russia specialists including scientists; she explored cultural artefacts held in the Museum’s archive and delved into stories, viewpoints and beliefs from and of the region.

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More about Evgenia

Originating from Tiksi in Russia, Evgenia frequently travels back to her homeland in the Arctic to capture the varied worlds, cultures, traditions and people who inhabit it.

Evgenia shares some of these stories and those collected on her trips at the museum, celebrating the Polar regions and the communities who live there, while raising awareness around the fragility of existence of indigenous people’s lives and cultures due to the impacts of climate change.

The Arctic is increasingly impacted by the effects of climate change, with global warming causing glaciers and sea ice to melt at an unprecedented rate. This impacts negatively on the existence of people and animals in the region, but is also contributing to a substantial rise in sea levels, desalination and changes in ocean currents – the effects of which are beginning to be felt around the world.

The Arctic is a unique and complex part of the Earth’s ecosystem and its health is critical to sustaining all life. Despite geographical, sometimes political and social separation, we are all linked and in order to protect this remarkable and essential place awareness needs to be raised to highlight our intrinsic connection.

Evgenia Arbugaeva has won various competitions, including the ICP Infinity Award, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Grant. Her work has been exhibited internationally and appeared in publications such as National Geographic, mare, Le Monde, and The New Yorker magazines, among others. Her work portrays personal stories and photoessays in magical realist compositions that are seeped in fairytale and fable.