Online Art Workshop with Patrick Thompson FREE for kids, aged 7-15

Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary is hosting a FREE virtual nature-based Art Workshop for kids aged 7-15 on Wednesday, November 9th at 4pm, where participants will be taught how to draw a local endangered species under threat as a result of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Renowned Canadian artist Patrick Thompson will coach workshop attendees on how to create beautiful, inspiring drawings, and therefore no previous drawing experience is required in order to register!

In partnership with Nature Canada, Patrick will use the drawing created by workshop attendees during the production of a large-scale artistic illustration of the endangered species, to amplify the importance of COP15 in Montreal, and interenational conference focused on halting and reversing biodiversity loss.

Context

Canada is hosting COP15 in Montreal in early December, an international conference organized by the United Nations focused on halting and reversing biodiversity loss. The Convention will convene government officials from around the world with the goal of pledging a new series of targets on the protection of biodiversity over the next decade, in the hope of transforming society's relationship with nature by 2050.

COP 15 has the potential to galvanize Canadians behind a roadmap for conservation, protection, restoration and sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystems for the next decade. Nature Canada is mobilizing its nationwide Nature Network to create distributed events and actions across Canada focused on drawing the public’s attention to the goals of the COP15. With our Nature Network partners, both local and regional, Nature Canada has organized a bus tour where buses will be dressed as endangered species, departing from Vancouver, Halifax and Toronto and stopping in towns and cities across the country until their combined arrival in Montreal. The buses will collect letters and artwork from Canadians to express their hope for the recovery of nature - each stop of the bus will serve as a celebration and opportunity to speak up on behalf of nature. The bus tour culminates in a showcase of positive energy in Montreal, where Canadian decision makers will meet the buses, further emphasizing and cementing the groundswell of support from across the country for the goals of NatureCOP