The production of the artwork exhibited on this page has been inspired by We Still Have a Chance, a collection of powerful human stories around climate change. The stories were co-written by scientists, health professionals, students, activists and artists in the UK and Egypt in May 2022 to support the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27, which took place in Egypt in November 2022.

The co-writing of the stories brought to the surface mutual concerns and emotions around the current climate emergency. It encouraged everyone to forge bonds of solidarity and imagine solutions to save our planet.

While co-writing these stories in the lead up to COP27, our ‘COP27’ team – led by the University of Exeter with a host of partners including the Met Office, the British Council, the American University in Cairo, Banlastic in Egypt and poet and musician Ahmed Haddad – developed international collaborations and projects to disseminate the messages behind the stories and the sentiments that contributed to their creation.

Driven by the urge to continue to plant seeds of positive change, our COP27 team obtained funding to translate We Still Have a Chance
into various forms and reach audiences around the world through storytelling, virtual galleries, theatrical performances, artworks and digital landscapes. In particular, Dr Eliana Maestri, Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies, the University of Exeter, is the project lead of ‘12 Stories for 12 Days of COP27’, a project supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The project has reached out to local communities, artists and schools across Devon to produce artwork inspired by the We Still Have a Chance stories. Translating these stories into a series of vibrant prints – produced at Double Elephant Print Workshop and Screenprint Studio in November 2022 – has provided them with new interpretations, infusing artists with enthusiasm and vitality.

The artwork showcases different artistic practices and techniques – ranging from collagraph to letterpress and screen printing – the collaborative approach applied by skilled Double Elephant artists and COP27 team members and the love that everyone has for the environment. The artworks displayed transform and empower scenes and details of the stories in a personal and exciting way, ranging from birds which ‘will keep their colours until the end of time’ to plants becoming ‘a dense canopy of shade’ (We Still Have a Chance). They reflect the need to connect with local and global communities and to think together of how we can protect the health of our planet.

A series of workshops were designed by Dr Maestri and Double Elephant project Lead George Barron, and were then led by Double Elephant artists: George Barron, Simon Ripley and Rosie Stiling. The workshops were opened by the University’s COP27 team and these introductory sessions enabled workshop participants to discover more about the We Still Have a Chance project and connect with its climate scientists, educators, creative writers and translation specialists.

The artwork created at Double Elephant is now exhibited until April at the Exeter Phoenix café bar gallery. Other artworks produced by schools with Daisi artists and by Exeter-based graffiti artist Steve McCracken are now displayed at MakeTank and the Exeter Library, respectively. Photographs of these works can be admired at the Exeter & Devon Institution starting from 1 February until 2 April.

Sincere thanks goes to a number of people and institutions: the University of Exeter, Double Elephant, Exeter Phoenix, the Met Office, COP27 team members, Theo Moye, George Barron, Rosie Stiling, Simon Ripley, Emma Molony, Molly Rooke and Andy Cluer as well as Double Elephant workshop participants and local artists. Special thanks also goes to the Arts Council  England for making all this possible.

The gallery of photos has been supplied by Theo Moye.