Proudly supported by the Born Free Foundation
Precious Africa
With the Maasai Tribe in Kenya, Africa
Maasai art and culture & Africa's iconic animals in their natural habitat
Schools & children are invited to ‘travel’ with the Last Chance to Paint team to Kenya, Africa, to meet the Maasai tribe. Paint alongside artist John Dyer and exhibit in the World Gallery to highlight what we stand to lose. Discover amazing African animals and the culture of the Maasai. Investigate ecosystems, people, habitats and animals with our superb free teaching resources. An extraordinary interactive project that will inspire and connect children to our natural world.
"In March 2018 the very last male Northern White Rhino died, leaving only two females with which conservationists hope to save the species from extinction. This was a shocking moment and one we need to use to empower a new generation to live in a much more sustainable way. We can't undo history or even fully know what the history of a subject is, we are stuck with the current reality and have to move forward from that point without prejudice and with our hearts and minds wide open."
John Dyer, Artist for the Earth with EarthDay.org
Your class can 'travel' to Africa now
TEACHING RESOURCES
Our downloadable resources are primarily designed for Key Stage 2 but are easily adaptable for all Key Stages with links to Art and Design, Geography, Science, English, SMSC and Citizenship curricula. They are also great for parents to use with their children.
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Five lessons and full teacher notes
Why?
Home to the Big Five, Kenya inspires visions of wide-open savannahs, soaring mountains and tribal culture. Despite these idyllic images, co-existence is not easy, with increasing human populations, shrinking habitats and climate change pushing people and wildlife ever closer together.
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Join us to explore the beauty and trials of life in Kenya by experiencing Maasai art and culture, and observing and painting some of the world’s most iconic animals in their natural habitat.
Where?
Artists John Dyer & Joanne Short travelled to Kenya in February 2023 to visit the Maasai communities living around Amboseli National Park, before travelling north to Meru National Park, a key landmark in the Born Free story the resting place of Elsa the Lioness.
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Working alongside local people and guided by Born Free’s education team, the team worked with community members and local school children in both locations to create some truly unique works of art. We glimpsed some of the wild animals that call Kenya home, including the last two northern white rhinos left on earth.
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During the expedition, satellite communications and wifi allowed schools to ask questions and we uploaded blogs and video each day to inspire children across the world to connect to tribal culture and the environment. You can watch these videos and read our blogs to give your class a sense of ‘being in the moment’ with ‘Precious Africa and make sure to join us ‘LIVE’ on future chapters of the project.
What do we want you to do?
We want you to use our teaching resources, the art of John Dyer, combined with our video diary, photographs and blogs from Africa, that to immerse your school and children in the subject of Kenya and Africa. Encourage them to reflect, connect and then create their own piece of art based on plants, tribal people or animals and upload it to our WorldGallery.online.
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Help us to make real connections between people and to create the most extensive online art gallery of art celebrating the natural world. Upload your children’s art.
Inspire your children to paint
Before it's too late
What are the outcomes?
Through this project, you are connecting children with tribal culture & the Kenyan savannah. We hope that this will create a personal connection and bond to the environment and people of Kenya and generate amazing pieces of art and lots of questions. Once a child feels they have a personal connection to the environment then we have enabled that child to have reasons to tread gently on planet earth as they grow, become a careful consumer and make good decisions for our world. Art is a fantastic way to achieve this and it can give every child a reason to be better than the previous generation as they won't want to damage the animals, people and environment. We want every child involved to create their own piece of amazing art on the theme of ‘Precious Africa’ that is inspired by the African paintings of John Dyer and the animals, plants and people we introduce them to. You should upload high-quality photos of their final paintings, collages, mixed media etc to us and we will exhibit their art online in the World Galley.
Your children's art on the World Gallery
Let your children bear witness to what we are all doing to the planet and creatively protest, have a voice, connect and highlight what we all stand to lose by exhibiting their personal artwork inspired by our projects on the World Gallery.
