With the aim of assessing the knowledge of students in the painting department at the Van High School of Fine Arts regarding the polar regions and investigating how the awareness developed among them—by broadening the scope of their knowledge—can contribute to public awareness campaigns on the polar regions and climate change, the Van High School of Fine Arts Visual Arts/Painting Teacher Murat Özaraz and Philosophy Group Teacher Özge Odabaşı Koç, a group of volunteer 12th-grade Painting Department students—Arzu Kara, Beyza Güngör, Bedirhan Uzunay, Neçirvan Mamedi, Furkan Çolbay, Furkan Adsaz, Yılmaz Bakır, Hüseyin Kaplan, Muhammet Karataş, Münevver Öter,  and Yakup Çaçur—participated in informational sessions on the characteristics and importance of the polar regions, their flora and fauna, and the effects of climate change, based on publications and documentaries available on the TÜBİTAK MAM Polar Research Institute’s website. As a result of the six-month project, the students participating in the research created oil paintings on the theme of “Climate Change/Arctic-Antarctic,” aimed at helping people of all ages gain knowledge about the polar regions and fostering environmental awareness.

The exhibition first opened at the art gallery of the Van Üvercinka Culture and Arts Center. Later, with the support of the TÜBİTAK MAM Polar Research Institute, the artists and their works were showcased on a large scale at the 2nd Polar Festival, held on December 1, 2021, at the TÜBİTAK Gebze campus. The students participating in the project provided visitors with information about their oil paintings, which highlight the impact of global warming on the polar regions.

The exhibition, supported by the TÜBİTAK MAM Institute of Polar Research and the Kocaeli Science Center, will open on April 18, 2022, and will be open to the public free of charge through June 19, 2022, at the Kocaeli Science Center’s Atrium Area.