Little LICAF’s latest free drop-in Creative Session, held at Kendal Library, at the start of the half-term holiday last month, was a great success. Families with young children, teens, the local vicar and the new Mayor of Kendal, Julia Dunlop, all popped in.
“It was a unique experience,” says Little LICAF team member Hester Harrington, “perfectly combining everyone’s love of nature with books and comic creativity.
The session was held as part of a Little LICAF project, funded by Kendal Town Council. Following the refurbishment of the children’s area of Kendal Library, this venue hosted the opportunity for the wider community to attend free creative sessions. The general public were able to view an exhibition, which celebrated artwork made by pupils which had been created during a series of educator-led workshops in local primary schools, and take part in creating their own climate-change comic!
The activities, developed and led by Hester Harrington, were taken from the climate change toolkit which invites youngsters to take part in a Four Panel Comic Challenge.
The original educational resources were previously launched online and was premiered in partnership with Re-Writing Extinction, an organisation who launched their own comic publication, Stories to Save The World, at LICAF Festival. Check out this page for more information: https://www.comicartfestival.com/live/4-panel-comic-challenge
“As part of my passion for getting comics into the classroom I designed this comic challenge, inspired by the theme of the environment,” Hester reveals.
“The topic of environment offers opportunities for cross-curricula learning and room to embed knowledge from subject areas including Geography, Science and Citizenship.
“I really enjoyed being able to adapt the activity for each school to encompass the topic of extinction, the local landscape and bee-keeping!”
The schools Little LICAF collaborated with were Heron Hill, Stramongate, Ghyllside, and primary phase special school, Sandgate.
Little LICAF (part of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival) runs comic related events and creates for young readers. In addition to its real-world projects, events and workshops, many taking place during the annual Festival weekend in Bowness-on-Windermere (taking place this year from Friday 29th September – Sunday 1st October 2023), the team have also created a large number of online resources for young comic readers, parents and teachers, including suggested reading lists curated by the Comics Laureate.
• Find out more about Little LICAF and check out Little LICAF resources for young minds here
