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Discover the extraordinary with us today!
A World of Good
Do A World of Good is Wakefield Museums & Castles’ commitment to take action on the climate crisis, supported by Wakefield Council’s Climate Change team.
It includes our environmental manifesto and action plan, a public eco-pledge campaign, and was launched in 2021 with a multi-sensory, immersive exhibition at Wakefield Museum.
The A World of Good exhibition is now closed but we continue to work hard to help the planet.
"To put it simply, the state of the planet is broken. Dear friends, Humanity is waging war on nature."
Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations
Our planet is in pain. Plastic clogs our seas and litters our streets and countryside, pollution chokes our skies, water floods our homes, and fire burns our lands. Owning a bag for life, alone, is not going to stop this.
We are all responsible for the welfare of our planet, our home. The need to take action is urgent. In the next ten years, we will all be expected to change the way we treat the environment and nature in every aspect of our lives.
We are not just doing this for the planet, we are also doing it for ourselves. We know that a connection with the natural world is essential for our wellbeing.
Along with hundreds of governments, businesses, and organisations around the world, Wakefield Council has declared a climate emergency and made a commitment to being a carbon neutral organisation by 2030. We will help our visitors to achieve this goal too.
We have looked to our district to find inspirational pioneers, campaigners, innovators and agitators, both past and present. People who swim against the tide and try to change our attitudes to our planet and our resources, for the better: inventors of energy saving machines, entrepreneurs who find value where others see rubbish, and campaigners who fight to protect the environment and the natural world from the destructive actions of humanity.
Our key inspiration is the environmental work of Charles Waterton of Walton Hall. Waterton campaigned to protect the natural world by creating a haven for wildlife and protecting it from hunters and pollution. Through his campaigning, he hoped he was doing “a world of good” but sadly, his work was largely ignored and dismissed as being eccentric. It has taken 150 years to listen to his warnings and to continue his fight for a better future: quite simple, we cannot ignore the threats to our planet anymore.
We are working with experts to identify ways through which we can take action against climate change. We will share this advice with you, so that you can take positive action too. Together, we can all do A World of Good for our planet; after all, from small acorns grow mighty oak trees.
What we will do:
Promote green and environmental sustainability messages in our exhibitions, learning, and engagement programming
Practise what we preach and find sustainable materials to deliver our programmes, invest in low energy equipment, recycle what we use
Spread the word and encourage our visitors to take action, whilst also celebrating and collecting environmental achievements and success stories from across the district
Dave Mee, Countryside Ranger for Anglers Country Park, reflects on Waterton's pioneering nature reserve and its legacy today.
Film by Voices and Video
The story of Charles Waterton is complex. As well as being a conservationist and environmental campaigner, he was an explorer and a plantation manager in British Guiana, South America. We want to explore and share all aspects of Waterton's life. Find out more about Waterton's involvement with slavery here.
Our multi-sensory, immersive exhibition at Wakefield
Museumcentred on the letters of Charles
Waterton, a 19th-century environmentalist who built the world’s first nature
reserve at his home near Wakefield. His letters outline the action he was
taking 200 years ago – protecting wildlife, campaigning against pollution, and
promoting the benefits of nature for wellbeing.
The letters were complemented by contemporary
paper sculpture by local artist Andy Singleton, animation by Charlotte Blacker,
and the knowledge of nationally important figures such as Sir David
Attenborough, Michael Palin and Liz Bonnin.
As part of the A World of Good exhibition and manifesto, we also have a range of related resources and exciting activity ideas with links to the National Curriculum. Learners can conduct a species survey, create their own nature notebooks, use a carbon calculator, write persuasive letters, or design protest art. There is also everything you need to create your own DIY exhibition! Head to our Schools Resources page to find the activity packs.
We now use sustainable materials in our exhibitions as
standard wherever possible.
This includes fully recyclable graphic panels made from
eco-friendly board and PVC-free vinyl with no chlorine or plasticisers.
We reuse materials whenever we can. MDF from our 2019
exhibition, Gateway to Eternity, got a new life within A World of Good. The
exhibition structures were made from the roof of our recreated Ancient Egyptian
tomb!
The recreated Ancient Egyptian tomb from our 2019 Gateway to Eternity exhibition
Throughout the 2022-23 Winter season and into the Spring, local school groups and members of the public helped to plant almost 9000 bulbs at Pontefract Castle. Schools shared their wonderful photos of their pupils getting stuck in on social media with #PlantefractCastle!
Volunteers have also been surveying the invertebrate wildlife in the Castle grounds to track how the biodiversity of our site hopefully improves over the years.
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