The first of these awards is £3,000 from the Natural History Museum’s ‘Fixing our Broken Planet’ programme. This will be used to engage with young people to create an exhibition that explores the local impact of climate change and comes up with possible solutions for a sustainable future.

The resulting exhibition will be showcased at the Museum Resource and Learning Centre in Friar’s Street, Hereford and will be used to influence key elements of Hereford Museums and Art Gallery’s redevelopment.

Plans are now underway to recruit participants to the programme with the exhibition targeted to be installed and available for public viewing from August 2025 – March 2026.

The second award is a £2,000 grant received from THE HERDS Art Fund.

THE HERDS is an act of public art and climate action taking place between April and August 2025. Over 100 life-size animal puppets created in renewable and recyclable materials will journey 20,000km through Africa and Europe. The aim is to inspire wonder for the natural world as well as sparking discussions about the challenges of climate change.

Although the procession will not come to Herefordshire (it is only visiting Manchester and London in the UK) the award will enable Herefordshire Museums to raise awareness of the project via hands-on, creative, climate-themed activities at this year’s Three Counties Show in Malvern (13-15 June).

Damian Etheraads, Museum and Art Gallery Lead at Herefordshire Council said:

We are thrilled to receive these awards particularly since we know the competition was extremely tough.

With this additional money we will be able to connect with people in new ways around the effects of climate change. Through creating the Fixing our Broken Planet exhibition and our activities at the Royal Three Counties Show, participants will not only have great fun but will also get involved in important discussions about the huge effects of climate change and their impact on our natural world.