Playful Learning 2026 Programme

What’s that? Storytelling, zines and the climate emergency.

Lead Author: Sarah Campbell

Additional authors:

Timetable: Thursday Session 8: 15:30-16:15, Gallery Room 2

Description:

Have you used pineapples, mushrooms or human hair in your art and design practice? Come and learn about all of these and more, in an informative and creative workshop with staff and collections from the art school, Central Saint Martins. Using object-based learning we explore climate emergency, sharing examples of unusual materials and encouraging the participants to consider their personal relationships to those materials through storytelling.

We promote an open and supportive way of discussing the climate emergency. The students we work with have a choice about their materials. Some will use virgin-source, non-recyclable materials, because that’s what their work demands. Others will use lower-impact, innovative and more environmentally considerate materials, due to demands of their course, a client, or themselves for personal, social or political reasons. One way we can support an increased use in sustainable materials is to share them with students and encourage a personal connection with them through methods like zine making (used in this session).

The session is devised by Billie Coxhead, Materials and Product Collection, and Sarah Campbell, the Museum & Study Collection and references the work of Liz Corbin in Why Materials Matter: Responsible Design for a Better World.

References, web links and other resources:

Billie Coxhead runs the Central Saint Martins Materials and Products Collection https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/student-life-at-csm/facilities/materials-and-products-collection

Sarah Campbell is the Curriculum Development Curator of the Central Saint Martins Museum & Study Collection https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/about-us/museum-and-study-collection

Billie and Sarah are part of the Collections Action Group: Intersectional Environmentalism at UAL (the wider university CSM is part of) and are committed to challenging wasteful practices in museums and collections as well exploring the intersectional issues related to this.

Collections Action Group: Intersectional Environmentalism https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/climate-action-plan/stories/collections-combatting-the-climate-crisis