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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final important works. Recognized for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting societal issues from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, encouraging makers and thinkers to oppose the continuing disappearance of flora and fauna. “The mission is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

Thus the environmental art day was established, a day when artists across the country created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his later life, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its legacy can still be observed in campaigns like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their work. This is the reason she is relaunching it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the featured creators taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. Each has designed posters, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing one participant, she is out in a field in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), genetics (studying the apple’s DNA), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Every one carries background narratives. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s project on disappearance will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in the past decade. Each glacier will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be conducted to remember that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, a creative will be hosting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a communal feast, cooked from organic, local produce. Over in Newcastle, a participant is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to decorate an art space in children’s artwork that document their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can provoke a awareness of obligation from us all. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is aiming to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. The project commenced following he endured several events of prejudice on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since grown to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to sow flowers at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the events and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and