Lucia Cooper, our Brazilian Exploring Art group member, has helped create and coordinate a project inspired by the COP 30 conference taking place in Belém, Pará, Brasil - the gateway to the Amazon Rainforest and close to Lucia's home town. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the largest global United Nations event for discussions and negotiations on climate change.

Sidmouth u3a Exploring Art Group - plus Lucia's family and guest Brazilian artists - were asked to consider those aspects of the Sid Valley which meant most to them and might be adversely affected by climate change, and to create related artworks. These artworks have now been assembled as part of a collaborative community artwork which will be exhibited on Sidmouth Wallspace as from 4 November 2025, raising awareness of climate change and how we can protect our common home.

Unfortunately, it appears that rain accumulated under the several layers of posters on the billboard which, being paper not plastic, absorbed too much water and completely collapsed.

Rather than replace the poster, Sidmouth School of Art have decided to include the COP30 billboard image plus all the individual works as exhibition along the Ham and these will be printed on alupanles – weather proof and similar to the Riverside Art Space exhibition panels...so each individual work of art that went into the poster will now be seen whole rather than part of the collage poster.

 The new exhibition will be up for a few months – may be even until June – and is part of a wider Marine and Green environment focused exhibition with the COP30 ink posters as well. 

Some of the contributing artworks can be viewed on the Sidmouth u3a Exploring Art flickr page and there is more information on the Sidmouth School of Art website.