Story by Susan O'Leary

As part of Richmond Council's Great Big Green Week, Parents for Future West London will host a free exhibition of artwork that celebrates our beautiful planet at the Crane Community Centre in Twickenham from 12-3pm on Saturday 10th June.

The Our Other Mother exhibition brings together artwork by children's illustrators who participated in the global Our Other Mother campaign. The campaign was launched on Mother's Day 2021 by parents' groups and children's illustrators, who were worried about climate change and wanted to push for a brighter, safer future for all our children. They called on creatives – aged 5 to 95 – to produce a piece of art or a message (illustration, poem, story, photo or song) showing love for mums and #OurOtherMother – planet earth. Iconic British illustrators Jim Field of Oi Frog! and Rebecca Cobb of Paper Dolls joined the campaign and engaged their networks. Other leading illustrators including Rob Biddulph, Lydia Monks and Emily Gravett also contributed to the campaign.

The campaign was launched by parent climate groups – Our Kids' Climate, Parents For Future UK, Mother's Rise Up – and illustrator networks, Kid Lit For Climate and EditArtz on UK Mother's Day. It has since expanded and travelled the world. It has been embraced by climate parent groups in Australia, Brazil, Nigeria, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden and USA on their respective Mother's Days. There are now over 1000 posts under the #OurOtherMother hashtag on Instagram.

To coincide with COP26, the Our Other Mother campaign left virtual world and entered the real one! Parent groups from all across the globe – Ghana, Slovakia, Germany, Spain to name just some – were empowered to put on Our Other Mother exhibitions in galleries and other community spaces. There was even an Our Other Mother exhibition at Silverburn Shopping Centre in Glasgow during the COP 26 climate talks – with Our Other Mother postcards handed out urging climate action to COP 26 delegates. Parents and children marching for climate action in Glasgow carried placards and banners emblazoned with art from the Our Other Mother campaign.

The most recent iteration of this wonderful exhibition will be held in Twickenham this Saturday. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy some the beautiful artwork by children's illustrators celebrating Planet Earth, some colouring and crafting fun, a climate and nature themed children's reading corner, and a chat with fellow parents about how they navigate the climate crisis and the simple accessible parent-friendly actions you can take to help. Light refreshments will be provided.