Our Charity has begun an exciting new project that combines science and the arts to help connect children with nature. We’ve hired artist Milly Rolle to work in partnership with children and scientists. We spoke to Milly to find out how she feels about working on this project. Here’s what she had to say.

Why did you decide to work with us?

I’m excited to work with Wonderseekers because of the core values they have like curiosity, being inquisitive about the world, making science accessible to lots of people and combining art and science. The ethos of ‘we are all here to learn and grow and try something different’. We don’t know what the exact outcome will be, we get to figure that out together.

What is your background, have you always been an artist?

I have a drama degree, so a lot of my background is inclusive theatre, physical theatre, ensemble, world-building. I loved doing all of that and I still think it’s a really important part of my work. About five years ago, I started to find other ways to express myself creatively and transitioned to visual art. I’ve been really excited by it.

What are you most looking forward to throughout this process?

I’m looking forward to those magic moments where you offer something, the children respond and what they create, sparks a bunch of new ideas. Those moments are absolutely key to what the final product is.

I’m excited because there’s a few other artistic things I want to try that I haven’t done before, like different ways to do print making. It’ll be fun to test those ideas with children who are ready to try new things. We’ll probably do some things that don’t work and that’s okay too.

What are you hoping the children will take away from working with you?

My hope is that the children feel they can give something a try, trust their intuition when doing artwork. Some of them might need more encouragement, that’s absolutely natural. I want them to take away a feeling of I’m an artist too, we can all be artists. I hope they feel excited to try new things and pleased they gave it a go. Also, to have fun and being silly with it. Silliness and play can lead to really productive outcomes.