1 week Ago
More than 600 children have created five films inspired by the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project. The pupils from three Littlehampton primary schools will see their work premiere at Littlehampton's Windmill Theatre on April 5. The students from River Beach and Summerlea Community primary schools began learning about the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project in November 2024.
They worked with experts from the Sussex Wildlife Trust, Sussex Underwater, and film students from the University of Chichester. They learned about the ecology of kelp, the history of the local campaign to save it, and various film and animation techniques. Fifteen students from years 5 and 6, supported by Artswork, a charity that empowers young people to lead their own creative projects, developed five film concepts to share their newfound knowledge.
They were joined by their school communities at River Beach, Summerlea, and Rustington Community Primary School, with more than 600 young people working together to produce the films. They took on roles ranging from creating claymation creatures, making and animating in paper, using drawing and junk puppetry, acting, creating sound effects, and even staging a whole school demonstration. A range of local artists, including Littlehampton-based Lucy Seeds and Shirley Bloomfield-Davies, supported their work.
The result is five "wildly ambitious and different" short films, all inspired by the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project. One year 6 participant from River Beach said: "I’d like our films to inspire everybody to know how important it is to help the kelp." The project was developed and produced through the Young Cultural Changemakers Programme, run across Arun by youth arts charity Artswork.
The programme offers training and creative opportunities to cohorts of local young people, who are able to commission artists and other professionals to help them realise their ideas for new projects designed to benefit their communities and share environmental ideas. Two free premiere screenings will take place at Littlehampton Windmill on Saturday, April 5 at 10am and 11am..
