Workshops: Initiating wildlife education through art in Turku.

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Pictures credit: Iida Vanttaja

Summary of the project

Citizens’ involvement contributes significantly to sustainable conservational efforts and lasting coexistence with nature. Environmental art has proven to be a powerful tool in this regard, for both children and adults. Indeed, art can help to clarify conflicts and deepen the understanding of information by sparking concern towards the subject, while remaining an enjoyable and engaging experience. Therefore, our goal is to apply all the information gathered within the previous projects to create public workshops in Turku, involving puppet shows and science communication. All workshop materials will be available in Finnish and English. Puppet shows will be mainly in Finnish, but we opened one workshop to host the puppet show in English. See the Calendar to have more details.

When and where?

With the collaboration of two local artists Iida Vanttaja and Sirpa Järvenpää, we plan to organise at least 20 public workshops from 2026 to 2027 in Turku. Depending of the success of these workshops, we will extend the number of our venues, and potentially holding them in other cities or villages.

The workshops of 2026 will be organised between 28.10.26 and 5.12.2026 in Jokistudio (https://www.tehdasteatteri.fi/jokistudio/, Itäinen Rantakatu 64 B, Turku). A detail schedule is available here. The event is free of charges.

What can you expect from the workshops?

Workshops are planned to last 1 hour in total, with the possibility to continue discussions at the end with our scientific team. You can also leave the workshops at any moment (e.g. right after the plays). The first part of the workshops will feature two plays performed by our two puppet artists. The stories are suitable for adults and children; nonetheless, we have set an age limit of 5 years old to avoid hurting the sensibility of younger children.

The second part of the workshops will focus on science communication, including informative posters about services provided by urban forests, coexistence with carnivores, and opportunities for discussion with scientists. The aim is to share general knowledge about urban forest and carnivore ecology, to debunk irrational fears surrounding these animals, to show that carnivore predation of other animals is a natural and value-neutral process, and to encourage a deeper appreciation of urban forests as vital spaces for nature connection and activities.

For the children, we will also have a table where they can draw and share their feelings about the plays, and another table where they can interact with the puppets and the puppet artists.

We are also inviting everyone to fill a short anonymous questionnaire and to interact with a “box of thoughts”, where participants can anonymously share their reflections about the event, such as what they liked, what they disliked, what they would like to see more of, or any other thoughts.

Some refreshments will be available, such as coffee, tea, fruit juices, and water. The workshops are completely free of charge.

Some pictures may be taken during the workshops for advertisement and outreach purposes. Nonetheless, you can specify if you wish to be blurred or not appear in any of these images.

Description of our plays

The first play revisits the famous fairy tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” (Punahilkka) in a modern era. Follow the story of Hilkka, who is going to visit her grandmother and meets a wolf along the way. But this time, there is a twist: the wolf may not be as bad as we are used to seeing…
The second play depicts a poor young rabbit caught in a trap. As if things were not already bad enough, a singing red fox comes by and notices him… but will this encounter truly be unfortunate, or could it be for the best?

We truly hope to see many of you there and that you will enjoy these workshops as much as we do!

We thank our funder(s) for this project:

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