The Wall of Whispers – a closer look into collaborative art making

There are days when I feel Art has all the answers, to different challenges , avoiding cul de sacs, allowing for recalibrations and restoring hope. But it also offers so much for collaborative learning which I believe is too often over shadowed by extreme focus on individual academic excellence. This collaborative art work weaves eco literacy and other patterns that connect.

I took an artist residency at ISB school in Beijing in Nov 2024. Working with the art department Joseph Stewart and Yvette Stride (Middle and High schools ) we embraced various approaches to nature based art making.

We take a deeper pedagogic dive with good friend artist and art educator Yvette Stride . We had been talking about ecological connection and creativity for a couple of years and the fruits of this emerged with sharing of ideas of systems thinking, eco philosophy and skills already existing within Yvettes Art 1 and Art 2 classes during that residency.

Wall of Whispers in the courtyard galley area of DongYue Art Museum , Chaoyangmenwai , June 2025 at the exhibition NEST

Yvettes blog which includes the organic pathways of planning and manifesting ideas and how we supported group decision making along the different stages. It also includes a unit plan for the artwork.

(Chinese language lesson plan available on request)

Here is Yvette’s blog on the Wall of Whispers