The Legislative Assembly of Charlottetown is hosting an exhibition of photographs taken during the British Council-organized Cape Farewell Youth Expedition 2008. Last fall, Prince Edward Island high school student Sean White joined an international group of students who journeyed to the Arctic on a youth expedition that raised awareness of climate change in Canada and abroad.
The Cape Farewell Youth Expedition was an inspirational international project that brought together top scientists, artists, educators and high school students from around the world and from each Canadian province and territory on an Arctic voyage of discovery.
The voyagers sailed from Reykjavik, Iceland, skirted the southern tip of Greenland and ended in Iqaluit on Baffin Island. Students studied climatology, oceanography, geomorphology and biogeography. Their art projects included film, photography, fine arts, performing arts and writing. Throughout the voyage, P.E.I. photographer Robert vanWaarden documented the voyage and produced a collection of breathtaking images.
The exhibition will be officially launched on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. during a reception, with remarks from the Honourable Richard Brown (Minister of Environment, Energy & Forestry) and Cape Farewell voyager Sean White.
The exhibition will be on display in the Legislative Library, on the ground floor of the Coles Building from Monday April 20 through to Friday May 15, and will be available for public viewing on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations.
BACKGROUNDER:
Sean White is 17 years old and a grade 12 student at Charlottetown Rural High School in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. He has lived on an island his entire life and has always had an interest in the beauty of the nature in his home, which climate change can strongly affect because everything is so close to the sea level. He is an aspiring jazz musician and his trumpet playing is a very large part of his life along with his hobby of learning guitar and writing songs. He is active in the PEI music scene and participates in his school concert band and jazz band, and the University of PEI jazz ensemble. This summer, he is employed by the Confederation Centre of the Arts in the Confederation Brass, a brass quintet made up of music students. Sean has hopes of communicating his passion for the world around us through his music and writing.
Robert vanWaarden is a photographer based in Canada and the Netherlands where he turns his lens on the problem of climate change. He has spent the last two years focusing on the social movements enacting change and the geographical affects of a changing climate. His work has appeared in major national and international magazines and he counts several international corporations amongst his clients. His images have appeared in Canadian Geographic, Epoca Magazine, UP! Magazine, COWI, UPEI, McGill Law Journal, and The AGE. They have also been used by CNN, CBC, Radio Canada, the Quebec government and various international non-profit organizations.