‘Jam the Jellyfish’ was selected as the winner of the Key Stage 3 & 4 category in the NI Science festival / Ulster Wildlife Marine Litter Art Competition 2018.
This large sculpture made from waste materials collected from a local beach and was designed to highlight the issue of marine litter in Northern Ireland. The Art and Craft Club has been run by sixth form students for pupils in forms 1-3 and has enjoyed a good attendance and a range of exciting activities in its first term.
"Jam the Jellyfish is an interesting sculpture with bright, colourful, tentacles and a hodge podge head. Jam was inspired by the large number of jellyfish we saw as we collected our rubbish, which we found sad. We also wanted to reflect the way in which animals can mistake litter for jellyfish. The jellyfish was constructed from a recycled umbrella, poles found at the beach and paper mache from recycled newspapers. We hung tentacles made of plastic bottles, wrappers and adorned the top with beach litter."
The winning artwork is exhibited at the Bangor Carnegie Library from 15 – 31 February, and again at the Ulster Wildlife Living Seas Art Exhibition at the Down Arts Centre in June 2018.
The prize was presented to Alex Dougherty from Form 1, who represented the club, at the Ulster Museum on Sunday 18th Feb by Professor Callum Roberts (University of York), Dr Carol Turley (Plymouth Marine Lab), Dr James Strong (National Oceanography Centre), Dr. Jade Berman (Ulster Wildlife) and Chris McCreery (Ni Science Festival Director).
