The Wild Escape

 

Art made by thousands. Released into the wild.

The Wild Escape was one of the UK’s largest ever museum-based participation projects – bringing together over 500 museums, near 100,000 children, and a network of artists, educators and activists to co-create a vibrant, hopeful vision for the future of our natural world.

Led by Art Fund in collaboration with partners including the BBC, WWF, Arts Council England and the RSPB, the project was timed to align with David Attenborough’s Wild Isles series and culminated in a nationwide launch on Earth Day.

Children across the UK were invited to create artworks inspired by creatures in museum collections – artworks which were then released into a joyful, ever-evolving digital landscape built in partnership with Preloaded. It became a ‘first of its kind’ digital artwork – alive with imagination, ecology and creativity.

 
 

Creative direction and identity
I led the creative for the campaign, working with the brilliant team at Field on the visual identity. We were inspired by ecological art forms and the idea that each creature – drawn by children – was ‘escaping’ both the frame of the museum and the threat of biodiversity loss, journeying instead into a new shared digital habitat.

We wanted the design system to feel both democratic and dynamic – equally at home in classrooms, on gallery walls, and on a 60ft screen in Piccadilly Circus (which, yes, actually happened – and was a real pinch-me moment).

A phased rollout
Phase one focused on schools and museums: resourcing teachers, building toolkits, and helping museum teams across the country deliver workshops and events.
Phase two brought the work into the public realm – via out-of-home, digital advertising, and media partnerships – encouraging families to explore, visit and take part in the Wild World.

This was a super fun, super fulfilling project to work on if any more info is wanted then please do shout.

Some final stats:

  • 500+ museums took part

  • near 100,000 children involved

  • 1 ever-growing mass digital artwork

  • 1 giant screen in the middle of Piccadilly Circus

  • Collaboration and content with BBC Wild Isles / WWF

  • Artist Collaborations Es Devlin, FKA Twigs, Heather Phillipson, Rana Begum, Mollie Ray, Yinka Shonibare, Tai Shani, Claire Twomey, Mark Wallinger and Jeremy Deller, whose work was displayed alongside those by 7-11 year olds.