Young Plant Carers

Led by South Australian artist Louise Flaherty, Young Plant Carers is an exhibition that documents over three-hundred unique acts of care of native Australian plant life by children in local school communities.

Throughout Term 1, Louise ran a series of drawing workshops at three participating schools including Blair Athol North B-6 School, John Hartley School B-6, and East Marden Primary School. Together, young children aged 5-12 years old created this expansive body of works on paper through a series of ink drawings and writings that collectively document children’s mass concern for native environments. Looking closer the artworks are considerate individual and collaborative reflections of nature. The artworks also work as a time capsule recording and representing the growth, detail, and intimate thoughts of children on their school native gardens at this very point in history.

Young Plant Carers is an exhibition that calls us to look closer at the exceptional beauty of the natural world around us and consider how we might all share the responsibility of its care.