In June 2023, Enter Gallery hosted a Benefit Art Auction to raise funds for Connecting the Roots – a Brighton-based environmental charity doing valuable work over in Costa Rica. Their important work involves restoring and rewilding ecosystems in areas deemed vital to the fight against climate change.
To source the art for the auction, we turned to our generous artists, who happily donated rare, original and limited edition artworks especially for the event.
The auction was an enormous success and the funds raised have been dedicated to implementing several vital initiatives at Ostional High School – a school located at the heart of the rewilding project in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste region.
We’re delighted to announce that the work at the high school is now complete! In today’s blog, we’re revealing more about this project, and how it will improve the experiences of students and teachers over in Costa Rica.
Empowering Education
In Costa Rica’s Guanacaste region, the pursuit of education is a formidable challenge. Many schools in the area are in dire need of essential amenities, with insufficient classrooms, uninsulated roofs and a scarcity of desks and chairs.
Sadly, these conditions prove disruptive to the educational journey of the children at the school, and exposure to the harsh tropical elements presents a health and well-being risk.
It was decided that the proceeds of the auction would be used to secure the educational future for pupils at this school. Alongside building a new classroom and creating infrastructure for waste management and recycling, the aim was to provide an environmental education programme that will teach current pupils, and future cohorts of children for years to come, about the global importance of the beautiful region they call home.
School is in Session!
Work on the school was completed in April 2024 and celebrated with an inauguration of the new classroom at Ostional High School! This octagonal marvel, crafted with care and dedication, now stands as a sanctuary for students, nurturing their dreams of higher education and providing the support they need to succeed.
Alongside the classroom, Connecting the Roots also constructed a new parking lot and installed new guttering throughout the school to prepare for the upcoming rainy season.
The charity has also established a strategic partnership with local business, Novel Teak, who will be providing materials to build desks and to breathe life into another classroom. All of these are important steps that will ensure every student has access to a beneficial learning environment.
Thank You!
We’d like to take a moment to extend a huge thank you to those who made this project a reality. This milestone was only made possible as a result of the sales of 25 artworks donated by artists from Brighton and beyond. We’d also like to thank the many generous souls who made independent donations.
Enter Gallery’s Support for Connecting the Roots
As a business that deals in paper and deliveries, we’re well aware of our impact on the planet. That’s why we’ve been working alongside Connecting the Roots since 2021, and have pledged to send £100,000 to Costa Rica over the next ten years to help them restore the beautiful Guanacaste region – an area identified as vital to the successful fight against climate change.
Rewilding has been identified as the most effective, and lowest cost way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In fact, by rewilding just 30% of the planet’s key eco-systems (alongside protecting our current ecosystems), it will be possible to prevent more than 70% of predicted extinctions, and soak up 465 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2030. This is the equivalent of reducing all the carbon that human behaviour has built up over the last two centuries by 49%. We believe in this work, and will continue to do all we can to support this fantastic cause.
