50 Years Earth Day 2020
Earth Day is April 22 of every year. This year will mark 50 years of Earth Day. During this global pandemic, we have seen such incredible sightings, from animals roaming freely in the street to fish back in the Venice canal due to the lack of tourists clogging up the waters.
What is the theme this year?
The theme for Earth Day 2020 is climate action. The enormous challenge — but also the vast opportunities — of action on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing topic for the 50th anniversary.
Climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable.
Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS | Photo Credit: Tommy Japan
What can you do?
Over the 24 hours of Earth Day. The 50th anniversary of Earth Day will fill the digital landscape with global conversations, calls to action, performances, video teach-ins and more.
While Earth Day may be going digital, the goal remains the same: to mobilize the world to take the most meaningful actions to make a difference.
No matter where you are, you can make a difference. And you’re not alone, because together, we can save the Earth.
Earth Day at Somerset House
Wednesday 22 April – Wednesday 20 May 2020
Completely FREE!
As part of its year-round commitment to environmental sustainability. Somerset House celebrates the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a worldwide event on 22 April to champion transformative environmental action. Bringing together artists and designers who are contributing to the urgent effort to address the current ecological crisis. Somerset House invites visitors to experience free interactive events online, interrogating how art and culture can inspire positive change in society’s relationship with nature.
Highlights include:
- Specially designed online DIY workshops created by acclaimed British fashion designer Bethany Williams invite audiences to create a flag using materials at home to share messages to future generations, drawing attention to the climate crisis as part of her All Our Children commission
- Live Q&A with Bethany Williams and Somerset House curator Karishma Rafferty explores how Williams’ creative practice drives positive societal and environmental action
- A series of live online sessions presented by Somerset House and Fashion Open Studio explores the future of sustainable fashion with leading designers, forming part of Fashion Revolution Week
- Family-friendly online workshops celebrate the kingdom of fungi, inspired by the acclaimed exhibition Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of Fungi which Somerset House hopes to reopen to the public later this year
Join British fashion designer Bethany Williams for a live stream Q&A on Earth Day
In celebration of Earth Day (22 April) Somerset House brings you this new commission from fashion designer Bethany Williams. Recognised for her innovative and inclusive practice in the fashion industry. Williams places environmental sustainability and social responsibility at the core of her work.
Award-winning British fashion designer Bethany Williams investigates our relationship to future generations. Ahead of the physical launch of the new fashion collection. Williams has developed a series of online DIY workshops and a live stream Q&A. Through these events, the aim is to highlight the urgent need to transform society’s relationship with the planet, to better protect it for future generations.
Bethany Williams’ practice places both environmental justice and social responsibility at its core, led by Somerset House curator, Karishma Rafferty.
Alongside instructions for flag-making at home, the Q&A will offer exclusive insight into Williams’ All Our Children commission for Somerset House and her ongoing collaboration with the Magpie Project, a charity based in Newham providing safety and support for mothers and under-fives suffering in insecure accommodation.
TUNE IN LIVE 12 – 12:30pm, 22nd April 2020
Raise Your Flag
On Earth Day share your sustainable creations and messages on social media with @somersethouse using the #AllOurChildren hashtag. Works shared will inform William’s research toward the new All Our Children fashion collection, which launches later in the year
For Earth Day 2020 and in the context of the climate emergency, multi-award-winning fashion designer Bethany Williams invites us to make a flag to pass on a message to our future generations.
Watch instructions of how to make your own flag in this film
Somerset House
‘Our exhibitions might be closed for now but our new online cultural programme is now live.‘
Somerset House and its public exhibitions and events are currently closed. Somerset House is working hard with artistic collaborators and producing partners to be able to share its cultural programme online. Over the coming weeks, there will be opportunities for audiences to participate in a range of digital events, with Earth Day 2020 as one of the highlights. Further details to be announced soon.
Bethany Williams
Recognised for her systems led thinking. Multi-award-winning fashion designer Bethany Williams places environmental sustainability and social responsibility at the core of her creative practice. As part of this commission for 50th anniversary of Earth Day and in the context of climate emergency. Bethany invites audiences to reflect on themes of future generations and consider what wisdom and legacy we’d like to pass on to those who come long after us. The work connects ideas social and environmental justice both in the UK and further afield. What collective responsibility do we have to protect ‘All Our Children’ who will bear the toughest of the environmental crisis’ in the years to come?
Launching with a live Q&A on 22 April 2020, the research process and project will evolve over the next few months, beginning with DIY workshops inviting audiences to get involved at home during this period of lockdown due to COVID-19. Future highlights of the project include the raising of a new flag above Somerset House and the physical and public launch of the new fashion collection later in the year.
Bethany works closely with different charities and social initiatives for each of her collections and as part of this project has been working together with the Magpie Project who support vulnerably housed women and young children in Newham, an area of London with some of the highest levels of homelessness in the country. Through working with Magpie Project Bethany discovered that many vulnerable mothers were told by different institutions that their children were not ‘our children’ to support and protect. This speaks to the political environment in the UK today but also translates as a metaphor for future generations. How collectively we expand our capacity to care about those most vulnerable within our society now both locally and globally. And how can nurturing that capacity to care and take action help us address the climate and ecological emergency into the future as well?
Get involved in Bethany’s workshops and call-outs and participate in her research process. Tag #AllOurChildren.