WWF-Indonesia celebrated their 53^rd anniversary on last September. A special event was held for the special day. It is not just about celebration but we put education and arts on it. Then, WWF-Indonesia contacted me, Earth Hour Denpasar, Turtle Guide, and student representative of Indonesia Arts Institute to help organizing special event for the anniversary. We chose Turtle Education and Conservation as place for the event and invited 40 students from local primary school and junior high schools. The theme was ?Wear It Wild? focused on species conservation. We tried to make the event as fun and educative as possible for the students. Therefore, we made it as arts performance and competition. There were dance performance, face painting and bag painting competition.

It started at 9.00 am by dance performances from local students. The first dance was Merak Angelo performed by five students telling about the beauty of green peafowl, one of endangered bird in Indonesia. Then, it was continued by Cendrawasih dance performed by two students. The dance is Balinese dance illustrating about the beauty about Cendrawasih, bird of paradise. This bird is protected species and found only east part of Indonesia. By seeing these two dances, the students realize that protection of these birds is urgently needed otherwise we only see them in history book.

The face panting was held along the event. The student representative of Indonesia Arts Institute helped us with the painting. They drew sea creatures on our face. I got dolphin and sea star on my cheek. Almost everyone who attended the event got their face done with many kinds of sea creatures painting.

Bag painting competition was aimed to channel student creativity. Blank shopping bag was given the students and then they were free to express their feeling and opinion about marine conservation in the bag. Their paintings were so beautiful. I got impressed since they knew really well about marine conservation. They can take this bag home and bring it when they do shopping to reduce plastic bag usage.  Three best paintings got merchandise from WWF-Indonesia. Just after this competition, the turtle Guide help us to educate the students about turtle conservation. For your information, turtle is critically endangered since many people in Indonesia still consume their meat they get it in illegal market. 

". . .if we are going to have a new connection to the environment it will have to happen in individual hearts and souls . . . the artist can help us fall in love with the earth again." - Berensohn 2002. Educating students about conservation the form of arts really offer a way to make an emotional connection to people. The visual and performing arts help us and other conservation practitioners reach our new audiences, such as students. So, arts could be a very good approach to spread awareness about environment.