Just Imagine a better future

Art has a vital role to play in both imagining and building a greener, thriving future where nature is at the heart of our decisions. Last year, we launched Just Imagine, a nationwide competition inviting creatives from across the UK to visualise what our rebuilt future could look like, and help others to imagine a better world through their art.

This year we have a unique opportunity to restore the balance between people and nature, and move towards a more resilient and sustainable society. And, with the UK hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in November, this is a critical year for environmental action.

Now more than ever, it’s important to have conversations within our communities about the type of future we’d like to see. What would a future look like where we celebrate and protect nature through new laws and lifestyle choices? Would we be living differently, communicating differently, and have a better understanding of how to live in harmony with our planet?

In order to provide a platform for artists to bring people together and spark these conversations around the solutions to the climate and nature crisis, we launched the Just Imagine competition.

We asked individuals, arts collectives and artist networks across the UK to take inspiration from, and respond to, Sir David Attenborough’s film A Life on Our Planet. In the documentary, he reflects on the changes to the natural world during his lifetime, and presents his hopeful vision of how we might redress the balance through a shared appreciation of nature. 

In total we received 640 outstanding creative submissions, ranging from visual arts and illustration to fashion and textiles, poetry and creative writing – including the image at the top of this page by Amita Sevellaraja (@volapardus).

From these a panel of judges – award-winning graphic designer Greg Bunbury, painter-poet Judy Ling Wong CBE and award-winning anthropological future designer Stacie Woolsey – selected 12 worthy winners.

The winning entries are now on display in an online exhibition, and we’ll be inspiring others to take action through their art and in their community. During the virtual launch event for the exhibition, we brought together diverse voices and a panel of speakers to kick-start the conversation about solutions to the climate crisis, through discussion on art and community engagement.