In Spring 2025, Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance, is staging an exhibition reflecting on our changing climate and the impact that this global challenge is having on our local area and its communities.
The community-curated exhibition, which runs from 5 February to 26 April 2025, will explore the effects of climate change in Cornwall, drawing on historic artworks and photographs from the collections at Penlee House. Local environmental groups, such as Sustainable Penzance, the RSPB, Growing Links, Cornwall Climate Care and Mount’s Bay Marine Group, have selected works for inclusion in the exhibition. These highlight issues such as rising sea levels, more frequent storms and extreme weather, warming oceans, and the challenges these changes pose for the environment, local wildlife and their habitats, the communities living in Cornwall and our industries, such as fishing, farming and tourism.
The exhibition will also provide space for these local groups and other environmental champions to share their stories and offer suggestions to help visitors understand what individuals and communities alike can do to help combat climate change, protect our local area, and have a positive impact.
In addition to the historic paintings and photographs, the exhibition will feature new artworks created especially for the show by local community groups, children and young people. Groups such as the Women’s Institute and Penlee’s Arts and Health Groups, have joined young people from Mounts Bay Academy, Humphry Davy School and Penwith College, and children from four local primary schools to create new pieces on the theme of climate change. Working with local artists and some of the environmental groups, the groups and schools have responded creatively in a variety of ways to the images chosen from the collections at Penlee House.
These responses depict connections to favourite places and the inspiration people find in Cornwall’s landscape and seascape, as well as exploring how they have changed or might change in the future. The new works will sit alongside the paintings and photographs from the Penlee House collections which inspired them.
Mounts Bay Academy student Ollie said, “I think this project is very important because it will help inform the local community about this ever-growing problem.” Fellow student Fred added, “Having the artist Ben Cook work with us has been really useful to give us ideas of what we can do. Creating a version of a familiar picture and completely changing how it looks is quite powerful, and a contrast to the perfect world that we all think we know.”
Lindsay Masters, Careers Lead at Mounts Bay Academy, stated, “It has been an inspiration to see how our students have engaged with the project and shared their passion for the environment and air quality into an altered art image. They have conveyed their personal thoughts on the current global crisis that is impacting in Penzance now in 2025 to how it was many years ago in the picture-perfect postcard world. Zoe Burkett and Ben Cook have been instrumental in helping our students on their creative journeys and Mounts Bay Academy are very grateful for giving our students this opportunity and creating this important dialogue”.
Zoe Burkett, Learning Officer at Penlee House Gallery & Museum says “It has been inspirational to see how much work is being done by a wide range of local organisations and individuals, all striving to try and make a difference. In working with our communities to produce new art, one of the loveliest things has been the thoughts, memories, and ideas people have shared. We hope this exhibition will raise awareness, both of the challenges climate change poses but also of the amazing work happening in West Cornwall, as well as encouraging conversations and giving hope.”
Running alongside the exhibition will be a programme of events including climate-themed workshops, talks, film showings and children’s activities. More details can be found on the Penlee House website and social media channels.
The Shape of Things: Our place in a changing climate will be on display at Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance, from 5 February – 26 April 2025.
This exhibition has been part-funded by Arts Council England and Little Parc Owles Trust.
