CIAO! is an Oxford-based arts organisation that offers children and young people exciting opportunities to engage with the highest quality performing arts from around the world. CIAO!

has been producing theatre festivals since 2003, but this year is planning instead an ambitious arts and environmental science project, culminating in a large-scale public art installation, the Ark, being built in Oxford city centre in June for a celebration of low carbon living.

The CIAO! launched the Ark project at the Children’s Climate Change Conference held at the Sheldonian Theatre in January. The project was awarded the Inspire Mark by the Cultural Olympiad as a project that reflects the values of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Under the theme of ‘A positive vision of a low carbon future’ children heard from some of the county’s leading environmental scientists about future transport and housing, as well as protecting biodiversity and cutting carbon emissions.

As part of Oxford Inspires and Science Oxford’s Season of Science, CIAO!

is working with ten Oxfordshire primary schools and is asking children the question: ‘If you were sailing away on an ark to a low carbon future what would you take with you?’ The result of this work will be exhibited in the Ark from June 23 –27.

CIAO!’s artistic director, Karen Draisey, said: “In collaboration with Oxford Inspires and a wide range of partners we are mounting a very exciting project that demonstrates the fantastic potential for arts and science to work together on an issue that affects us all. We look forward to launching the Ark in Oxford in June as a spectacular public art installation and to giving children a platform for sharing their visions of a low carbon future.”

Schools involved in the Ark project are: Dashwood Community School, Banbury; Willowcroft Community School, Didcot; St Michael’s C of E Primary School, Marston; Church Cowley St James Primary School, Temple Cowley; Woodstock C of E Primary School, Woodstock; St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, Blackbird Leys; Sandhills Community School, Headington; Wolvercote Primary School; Wheatley C of E Primary School; and The Unicorn School, Abingdon.

The Ark will be costructed using reclaimed materials sourced within a 20-mile radius of Oxford. It will be an object of beauty, with lighting and sound from clean, green power.

The Ark will be placed in 'the Sea of Troubles' (see illuistration) — a visual representation of what the children choose to leave behind, from asthma inhalers to values and behaviours that they feel have contributed to environmental problems.

The Ark is being designed by Pegasus Theatre’s Nomi Everall, working alongside Architecture sans Frontieres, a charity concerned with education and training in the development sector. It is a politically independent not-for-profit organisation concerned with the social, cultural and environmental commitment to a sustainable environment.

More details on the Ark programme of events will be available in April, in the meantime visit CIAO!’s website (www.ciaofestival.org.uk) for updates.