This week brings the last chance to see a collaborative art exhibition between young people and a professional artist at RSPB Geltsdale. The joint show, on display in the visitor centre on the reserve until 5pm on Tuesday, March 22rd, comes from Carlisle Youth Zone, an organisation for young people aged 12 to 25, and sculptor and painter Mark Gibbs.
The exhibition centres on moorland birds and celebrates the young people’s work as part of a project called Green PLACE, in which members from 12 to 18 years old explored the region by walking, canoeing and camping, earning themselves a John Muir Award and making the beautiful landscape of the North Pennines more accessible to them. Their work features bird sculptures and street art-style paintings inspired by bird identification boards.
Sitting alongside their work is that of Carlisle Youth Zone arts coordinator and professional artist, Mark Gibbs, who has created intricate animal sculptures. Mark, who was winner of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists 2020 Prize exhibition and the 2016 Upfront Gallery Open, was awarded a Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership micro-bursary, which allowed him to spend time learning a ceramic new technique. This is showcased alongside the work of the youth zone members.
The installation can be viewed during visitor centre opening times, 9am to 5pm until close of play on Tuesday, March 22nd.