Children, Families, and Playful Artistic Exploration of the Urban Landscape

A family morning that combined art, play, and nature was part of the open workshop organized by Nubelab in collaboration with Parque Padre Hurtado and our foundation. People of all ages participated in exploratory walks and hands-on activities such as mask-making, landscape drawings, paper-based games, and bingo. As part of the event, our learning team guided an artistic cartography activity, inviting participants to walk through the park and record their sensory observations using marks, textures, traces, words, and objects—collectively building a free-form representation of the landscape.

During the activity, attendees engaged in a “drift” to attentively observe often-overlooked details: a shadow on the grass, the shape of a fallen branch, the sound of dry leaves beneath their feet. Later, they gathered to collaboratively create a visual representation of this experience using paper, natural elements, pencils, and other tools.

The activity, guided by Amparo Irarrázaval and Fiorella Angelini, was designed as a pedagogical experience for children and their families to reconnect with the urban landscape through a curious, creative, and sensitive lens. “Unlike traditional maps, artistic cartography allows us to record perceptions, emotions, and ideas that emerge while moving through an ecosystem—through strokes, textures, words, traces, objects, or gestures,” explained Amparo Irarrázaval, Learning Projects Coordinator at Fundación Mar Adentro.

Fiorella Angelini highlighted the intergenerational diversity of participants as a key element for fostering exchange and reflection from multiple perspectives: “During the walk, we experienced a moment where different voices, heights, emotions, and levels of enthusiasm merged to interpret what we observed.” She also emphasized how “the FMA and Nube methodologies complemented one another as tools for seeing and understanding our surroundings through the universal lens of art.”

For his part, Miguel Maira, Workshop and Resources Coordinator at Nubelab, emphasized the shared focus of this collaboration on free exploration as a core axis of learning: “Our methodology is inspired by the artist’s studio: inventing, exploring, making mistakes, sharing, and conversing. It’s a space that allows for freedom to try, imagine, and create—something often missing in traditional education. That’s why part of our mission is to bring this freer and more sensitive approach to schools and families.”

In addition to the activity, we hosted a stand to share some of our publications, including Verde Azul: Cuadernos para pensar la naturaleza and the zine Biocultural Notes on Algae, associated with the traveling exhibition They Will Survive the Tides, the Centuries, and the Dreams: Sensory Approaches to Algae. We also shared material from the Docente Activo program and the Poligonal art and science dialogue series.

After the cartographic walk, participants visited the stand and reflected on questions such as: What does nature teach us? What movements do we find in ecosystems? What surprises has nature given you? Their answers were in dialogue with a card game created by artist Bárbara Strange as part of the Ecologies of Fire residency at Bosque Pehuén, as well as with imagined landscapes displayed on photo cubes crafted by Fiorella Angelini, our mediation coordinator.

Catalina Jiménez, one of the participants, shared that “nature gives us moments to experience life and encounter micro-worlds—those that are often imperceptible.” Gianina Reyes, another participant, reflected: “Nature has taught me to be surprised every day, to feel fear and respect, to be moved, and to expand my way of seeing things. I’ve also learned humility in feeling small and, at the same time, to collaborate and support the existence of biodiversity.”

Upcoming Activities

Nubelab offers open activities for the whole family, designed to explore, create, and learn as a community. It also includes special offerings for educators looking to incorporate new learning methodologies based on art and play. To find out more, visit their website.