We are delighted to announce that our Year 7 pupils have been selected to display their group project ‘Turtles Uprising’ at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate.

The Year 7 pupil work has been selected to be in this year’s Portfolio Exhibition. Portfolio is a platform for young people aged 25 and under to showcase art and ideas at Turner Contemporary to thousands of visitors. The theme this year was ‘Rising’, a word that is both inspiring and frightening.

What is Turtles Uprising?

Year 7 pupils collected and recycled plastics and worked together to create collaborative sculptures based on UK animals that are endangered due to climate change. Most pupils decided to create Leatherback Turtles and researched projects such as the Washed Ashore Group and the Artist David Edgar to inspire them.

Pupils spoke about how their work responds to the theme:

“Our work responds to Rising because if turtles eat plastic they rise up because they are in danger, so we can help them get out of danger by using less and recycling plastic more. Making a sculpture of the leatherback turtle in plastic is good for the environment. They eat lots of plastic”.

“The leatherback turtle will soon be extinct because of the plastic that is going into the ocean, and we stopped some of that plastic going into the ocean by making our sculpture. We have been collecting plastic and thinking about endangered animals and we linked them both together to make a plastic turtle that we made as a group”.

The exhibition goes live at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate from Saturday 27th May 2023 and will be on display until Sunday 10th September 2023