Maisy Summer – Working with Kew Gardens Youth Forum
Joining the Kew
Since the beginning of 2024, Maisy has done a series of workshops with the Kew Gardens Youth Forum, which resulted in a comic called Plants for Unity. The workshops involved the members of the youth forum coming up with ideas, doing research, interviewing Kew scientists, writing scripts, and putting together storyboards. Maisy then had to curate, colour and illustrate the final comic using those storyboards and sketches, while staying true to the concepts. The comic centred on three stories – The Fungi’s Forest, The Ugly Heroes, and No Pig is an Island, which took in themes of biodiversity, habitat loss, and that every plant and fungi has its place in the ecosystem. There is talk of the comic being sold in Kew’s gift shop, with any profits going to an environmental charity.
