Already well regarded within Australian schools as an innovative and thought-provoking way of connecting students and farmers, Art4Agriculture’s, The Archibull Prize will now have international exposure at the 9th World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC) in Vancouver, Canada to be held in September.

WEEC promotes education for environment and sustainable development and attracts teachers, researchers, government agencies, NGOs and private companies from across the globe. Previous congresses have been held in Sweden, Morocco and Brisbane with attendance rates in excess of 2000 people from 105 nations.

The 2017 congress is titled ‘Culturenvironment: Weaving New Connections’ and will address themes such as the use of art in environmental education, social responsibility and environmental communication. Larraine Larri from Art4Agriculture will present ‘The Power of the Cow’ outlining how The Archibull Prize has used art, in particular the painting of a life-sized fibreglass cow, and multi-media in primary and secondary schools to provide a connection to agriculture, biosecurity and climate change.

“This is very exciting news,” Ms Larri said. “The World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC) is the penultimate international gathering for environmental and sustainable development educators. Policy makers, academics, researchers, community and school-based educators come together every two years for international agenda setting and collaboration. Being able to showcase The Archibull Prize on the world stage gives it international credibility and is an important opportunity to benchmark our Australian innovation with other art and/or agriculture programs.”

Thirty schools across NSW, QLD and the ACT have been selected to participate in the 2017 Archibull Prize and will explore the theme why Feeding, Clothing and Powering a Hungry Nation is a shared Responsibility’. Students and teachers will be assisted in their journey by agricultural professionals in the form of Young Farming Champions.

2017 will be the seventh instalment of The Archibull Prize, which is proud to have supporting partners in NSW Department of Primary Industries, Cotton Australia, Aussie Farmers Foundation, Australian Wool Innovation, Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Local Land Services and RAS of NSW.