M - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

Nathan Gallagher
Iceberg, during the Cape Farewell Disko Bay Expedition 2008.� Nathan Gallagher
practical problems related to their everyday life; ice
melting also means no access to areas that were before
accessible. However, a warmer Greenland may also
mean a more fertile Greenland, one that could be
reached by more people and effectively also change in
positive ways. Their lives will however change
dramatically.
Cape Farewell’s projects have also been directly
involved with education programmes. From the
first expedition came the creation of a GCSE unit
on extreme landscapes for the Geography 21
curriculum; The High Arctic: North to Svalbard
and in 2004, Cape Farewell developed the GCSE
science resource Life in The Water. These
resources were developed alongside a long
standing aspiration to take students to
experience the Arctic firsthand which was
realised in 2007 with the first Cape Farewell
youth expedition. What challenges were involved
in the designing an approval of the GCSE
programme? What was the response of students
involved in the youth expedition?
Extraordinary, it was great to have students and teachers
on board travelling with us. We developed a very
detailed module with a geographer which ended up into
the Geography 21 programme; this was the first time
50
that climate change found a place in the curriculum. It
was therefore a very important achievement for us. We
have anyway always had younger people on board from
our first expedition. Since the designing of the first
module, we have now developed resources that are
available on our website for free to teachers around the
world so that these can be used in classrooms. We are
also beginning to work with universities and it is very
exciting to be able to be involved in this side of the
project too. However, there is also a need to quickly
evolve and update as the information we acquire about
climate change is always changing. Now every school
child is aware of climate change; ten years ago this was
not the case.
In summer 2006, Cape Farewell collaborated
with the Natural History Museum in London, for
the realisation of an exhibition titled The Ship:
The Art of Climate Change, a free display of
contemporary art designed to generate
awareness and deepen our understanding of
climate change. Shown at Jerwood Gallery, The
Ship offered a unique insight into the
experiences of international artists and writers
who, over the past five years, have travelled to
the High Arctic as part of the Cape Farewell
project. How did this collaboration come about?
How did it work within the setting of