News

Community Art Project - Recycled Rainforest

30 November

"Faiths unite in stewardship of the earth"

To celebrate the first ever "Inter Faith Week" the recycling team organised a community art project which aimed to unite people of all faiths, in stewardship of the earth. The giant rainforest collage was created from old clothes and fabrics which were kindly donated by LMB Textile Recycling.  The old clothes were cut up and recycled into a collage.

The rainforest has been based at Ilford Central Library and has attracted many visitors.  People of all ages, abilities, backgrounds and faiths have come along and joined together to create the collage - residents of all ages from 2 to 92, holiday makers, artists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and many more have all worked together creating trees, flowers, butterflies, monkeys and many other creatures for the rainforest. Recycling officers have also visited local faith schools and faith groups during the week to create more animals!

The project idea was based upon the fact that all faiths have a common belief that it is important to preserve and care for the earth upon which we all live.  The collage was surrounded by extracts from a range of religious scriptures. The extracts were all about the importance of looking after the environment. The rainforest scene depicts one of the many ecosystems which are fragile, being endangered by the problems of climate change and is important to us all.

Sarah Partridge, one of the Recycling Officers running the event said: "The project was a great success.  The rainforest has attracted a huge amount of attention and a great range of visitors.  So many creatures have been made for the rainforest that there is hardly room for them all!  It has been nice to see people from all walks of life working together on this joint project, and making the common link between our faiths and the importance of looking after our planet.  We can definitely say that our first interfaith week has been a great success and we would like to run something similar again soon."