We take learning seriously at Jupiter Artland. Education and learning have always been at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is to engage with EVERY CHILD IN SCOTLAND.

While the landscape and commissioning of world-class art is rightly our preoccupation, the foundation and education programme mine the extraordinary power of the landscape, artist and viewer and becomes the vehicle for learning. The continual dedication to education and learning in nature is shown through the ambitious growth of the Foundation alongside the development of the Artland, from a personal dream of the Wilson family to a larger cultural institution.

In 2007 Jupiter’s educational mission was built upon ‘the vision to create a place that through art that would have a real transformative effect on the viewer, to spark something in an individual that might be life-changing’. The realisation of such a vision can be seen in the learning department as it stands, in its plethora of educational initiatives and classes, in ArtSparks, Junior Masterclasses and Woodland Explorers. These immersive and experiential educational programmes utilise a considered blend of Early Years, Montessori, Steiner and Forest School approaches, to deliver an egalitarian education within and through nature. The Learning Foundation continues to grow both its free and term-time classes and has had over 60,000 participants.

It is from this growing understanding that emerged our own pledge to reach EVERY CHILD IN SCOTLAND, and our creation and incorporation of the ORBIT Youth Council into the decision-making structure of the park itself. The council, a group of aspirational young people taken from disparate communities traditionally excluded from the art world, have had an active hand in shaping some work themselves, as Peter Liversidge’s reinvention of Alan Kaprow’s ‘Happenings’, visible from the exit road out of the park, was in part created by the council, as was the ‘Departure Lounge’ tent at Jupiter Rising 2020.

It is the hope that the young councillors, having been exposed to the inspirational power of art and nature, will reinvest this passion in their own communities. This is in itself a manifestation of our educational approach, one that is immersive, inclusive and egalitarian, and an essential part of the very meaning of the art itself. As educators, and as an institution, we still have much to learn. But that journey is one that continues to shape and guide Jupiter, and for the better.