Cambridge launch for WHOLE EARTH? exhibition

Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Cambridge Environment and Energy Section are bringing the new WHOLE EARTH? photographic exhibition to Cambridge next month.

The exhibition is the sequel to the critically-acclaimed Hard Rain project, which was viewed by over 15 million people in galleries and public spaces worldwide, and even went on show at the UN headquarters in New York.

WHOLE EARTH? is based on the premise that students and universities can help to lead society towards a more sustainable future.

The 60m long exhibition will be displayed on Parker’s Piece from 5-16 October.  Students in the city are being encouraged to use social media to voice their response to the striking images, and these will be presented to world leaders later this year.

Grace Philip, Engagement Assistant at Anglia Ruskin’s Global Sustainability Institute, said: “Anyone who saw Hard Rain will know how thought-provoking and powerful these images can be.

“We are therefore delighted to be able to work with the University of Cambridge Energy and Environment Section to bring to the city the follow-up to that exhibition.

“This compelling exhibition has a stronger focus on the solutions to sustainability challenges, and encourages students to think seriously about their own future and that of the planet.”

Leila McElvenney, Environmental Coordinator at the University of Cambridge, said: “We wanted to reach out to the tens of thousands of students at both universities and ask them what they are going to do about the challenges facing society today.

“University is such a formative period in one’s life and we hope this exhibition and launch event will inspire action.”

The Cambridge exhibition coincides with the international launch of WHOLE EARTH?, in partnership with the National Union of Students, in universities around the country as well as in Scandinavia and Australia.

The Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin is working with the exhibition’s creators to ensure that the reactions of students from across the world are captured using #StudentEarth.

Tweets will be analysed by a PhD student and formulated into a letter which will be presented to world leaders ahead of COP21 – the United Nations Conference on Climate Change taking place in Paris later this year.

WHOLE EARTH? is being launched with a special edition of the GSI Seminar Series on Monday, 5 October on Anglia Ruskin’s Cambridge campus.

The Question Time style event will ask “How can you change the world?”  The panel will include Mark Edwards, the renowned photographer behind the exhibition, Joan Wally, the former MP and Chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee, and Dr Aled Jones, Director of the Global Sustainability Institute.

The free event, which runs from 5.30-7pm, will be hosted by two students: Sammi Whitaker, Anglia Ruskin’s Students’ Union President, and Lily Tomson, President of Cambridge Hub, a Cambridge University Community Organisation.