Endangered Plants Index Degree Project

Yesterday I had a really helpful conversation on zoom with Amy Meek from the charity and organisation Kids Against Plastic (their instagram), where she offered a lot of advice and information to me about how she and her sister started Kids Against Plastic, and how I can go about starting and growing my Rewilding project.

During the call, I was able to ask Amy the biggest questions I had about starting up an initiative which I really hope will grow and expand to be on at least a similar scale as theirs is. One of my key (and first) focuses was funding, and where they got their funding from in order to grow their community and become the successful organisation they are now. Their funding was much more ‘organic’ than I had envisaged, and grew slowly over time, and wasn’t actually one of the first things that they looked into. But she was able to recommend a few locations to me (and agreed with the Patreon account idea), such as Geovation, who can provide funding for organisations, as well as mentoring for how to get the most out of the funding that you get and to make your organisation as effective as it can be. Additionally, she recommended achieving charity/Not for Profit/NGO status, as this makes people more willing to donate to your campaigns etc. Finally, she also recommended Investors in Community, through which you can connect and work with businesses and organisations in your local area, and they are able to donate, volunteer, and volunteer hours or skills towards your project, and helps it grow in your local community.

The importance of investing in the local community was also something that she stressed, as that is something that they focus on, and helps to grow your organisation – even if it is only slowly and in a small way to begin with. Also try and do as much ‘face to face’ and get out physically as much as possible, as people are more likely to engage with a physical project/activity that they can see and be a part of, rather than a more perforative one which is largely online based.

In terms of social media and publicity, instagram and their website are their main channels – with the instagram being a kind of signpost for their website, which is where all of their resources, information, opportunities, etc are posted. They were featured on Instagram’s own account, and she did say that she may be able to put me in contact there in the future, which would grow the size and following of the project.

Finally she gave me a few other helpful links and contacts, who may be very interesting to talk to and work with for my project, such as:

• Rewriting Extinction
• Yes Tribe
• Esri

Overall, it was a really successful and useful conversation to have, and has got me very fired up about starting my project properly!

As I have started to work through my ‘official’ list of plants, I am now also thinking about my rewinding project, and how to get that kickstarted. I have quite a bit of experience in planning smaller, one off actions, but no experience in organising something like this, which I want to be a really big initiative. I have started planning it in the same way that I plan other projects however, creating a planning document, which I can add to and take away from over time, and just put all of my ideas etc. (As you can see above)

Creating a planning document like this is really beneficial and helpful, s it allows me to visualise all of the thoughts that I have in my head and start putting them down in a useful and functional way, and highlight where I need to work most, etc.

Unfortunately, as I started to plan, my mind went completely blank on how to organise anything, and so I have arranged to have a planning session with a fellow activist, just to get my mind in the right frame of mind and to hash it out into some semblance of a plan.

Additionally, I have also asked for the advice of some of my other friends and contacts who have started and worked on large projects such as ClimateLive, as hopefully they will be able to give me a much better idea of where to start, and how to start turning my idea into reality.

As I have mentioned before, in order to complete my project, I need to work out some way of funding it, and there are many ways that I can do this – the three main ways that I am thinking about at the moment being:

1. Patreon
2. Crowdfunding
3. Selling editions

Patreon:
Patreon is an online platform for creators, where they create exclusive content for their members – people who sign up and subscribe to them every month. The content that is created is often created alongside the ‘public’ content, and gives extra insight into their work process, or a behind the scenes view of the project. Additionally, when you create an account for your content, you can create different subscription levels, and reward your subscribers for supporting you – for example with messages or discounts on products etc. As it is a platform designed for creative people and art works (amongst other things), I think it would be a perfect place to share and publicise my work – as well as gaining extra funding from it at the same time.

Crowdfunding:
Crowdfunding (Crowdfunder) is in some ways quite similar to Patreon, as you are able to create content and rewards to persuade people to donate to your project. However, it is a platform designed exclusively for raising funds, so it is easier to raise a larger amount of money on there, and would be better for raising a more ‘bulk sum’ of money, than Patreon which would be more of a steady income. It is also possible to raise extra money through crowdfunding with their + Extra Funding scheme, where you are able to find large benefactors that are raising money for a variety of projects that fit in with their goal – such as combatting the climate crisis. (See below) Crowdfunded would also be the best way of raising funds for the rewinding side of the project too.

Image Source: Crowdfunder (2021) Aviva Climate Fund. Available at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/funds (accessed: 7 December 2021)

Selling Editions:
The final method of raising funds that I have thought of is selling editions of the illustrations that I make. Although this could be a beneficial potential source of income, I have decided not to pursue this avenue, as negotiating usage rights of imagery (due to the reference image sources) is too logistically difficult.

Having researched all three methods, I actually think that I will do a combination of all three – none have to be stand alone and the combination would not only enhance my chances of raising enough funds for my project’s full completion, but it would also give me a wider platform and a wider range of experiences in selling, promoting and raising funds for my art. However, I do have to be careful when I do this, as I don’t want to lose the focus of my project and the intention behind it, by selling editions for example. This is something that I am going to have to think much more about and explore in more detail – in order to make sure that my project doesn’t lose its identity or become overshadowed by any of the logistical elements.

Additionally, I am going to have to carefully curate a campaign around my project, combining both the art and the rewinding elements, in order to add weight and create a wider awareness of the project. Doing this will vastly increase the chances of my project reaching the wider world and therefore getting larger base of potential funders. Sadly, this probably involves setting up a social media account for my project, however, I may be able to find ways of using one of the accounts that I already have – making it easier to keep up to date with content creating etc.

Update: 14/12/21:

I spent a lot of time researching the actual size of the orchid flower, as the images that I have don’t show it. I have decided that I will use this flower as my next project illustration, and I will draw it at an enlarged size, so that knowing the size of the orchids in the photos that I have found online isn’t as crucial as it might otherwise have been. Instead, I will add scale bars to the drawing to let the viewer know that it has been enlarged, and what the original size was. 

After I completed my illustration of the Catacol Whitebeam, I started to plan my next drawing. Ideally, I wanted to illustrate another plant from Europe, as this would fit in well with my Re-wilding project and create a cohesive link between my practical work and the organisational side. However, I have had real issues in finding images of the plants that I want to draw – be they herbarium specimens or living ones.

The above image shows the section of the list that I have gone through to check whether there are images available to draw from. I have been using a variety of locations to find them – the Plants of the World website, the Natural history Museum website and the RBG Edinburgh website, but for most of them sadly, I haven’t been able to find images. I therefore decide to pick one that I know there are images of – the Montserrat Orchid – however this also presents problems for me, as I am unable to find an herbarium specimen of it (although I have photos of the living plant), which would provide me with a scale for size reference. As I want all of my illustrations to be as accurate as possible, – including the size that they are drawn at – this is a big issue, and as of yet, I am not sure how to overcome it. I might ask my peers if they think that it’s important that it is drawn to scale – or if I enlarge it – that it has scale/magnification lines next to the illustration to convey the actual scale…