Book IWD Speaker: Vivienne Schadinsky

Vivienne Schadinsky is an award-winning London-based artist, educator and speaker who uses art to help people understand climate change, biodiversity and food systems, and to feel hopeful and able to act.

Raised in Basel, Switzerland, Vivienne works mainly in sumi-e, Japanese ink painting. She has been a member of the International Sumi-e Association in Tokyo since 2023, and has won the Association’s Cultural Award (2025) and the Asahi Shimbun Company Award (2026). Her work has been exhibited at the National Art Center Tokyo, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the Barbican London and OmVed Gardens, and is held in collections in the UK, Europe and the US.

Her practice is research-led. She founded and runs The Current We Share, an advisory board of experts from Kew Gardens, the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst, the Natural History Museum and several universities. She studied climate ethics and hopeful responses to climate change at the University of Oxford Lifelong Learning, and gives public talks (with an environmental ethicist on request).

Her long-term series cover seeds, soil, pollinators, food plants, edible flowers, London trees and the 72 Japanese microseasons. Each one turns complex science into clear, moving images and stories.

Vivienne is also an experienced educator. Her teaching draws on Maria Montessori’s philosophy, and she has developed sustainability-through-art syllabuses for ages 3 to 18. She built an art studio at a London secondary school and created a curriculum there. She also founded the Sumie Project, a six-year circular art curriculum for children, and the publisher What the Silence Grew. She runs adult workshops for organisations, communities and cultural venues.

WHY BOOK VIVIENNE
* A distinctive voice where art, science and ethics meet
* An inspiring story: a woman artist who has earned international recognition in a demanding traditional art form
* Calm, engaging delivery that leaves audiences with hope and practical ideas, not climate anxiety
* Hands-on workshops that need no artistic experience and build focus, creativity and connection within teams

TALKS AND WORKSHOPS
* Keynotes on climate hope, sustainability and creativity
* Seeds, food and biodiversity: what art can teach us about the future
* Slowing down: mindfulness, nature and Japanese ink painting
* Team and wellbeing workshops in sumi-e ink painting
* Workshops for schools on sustainability through art

CORE WORKSHOPS FOR ADULTS
* Japanese Ink & the 72 Microseasons: learn sumi-e techniques with traditional Japanese paper, ink and brushes, painting plants inspired by the 72 Japanese microseasons.
* Future Foods: explore what and how we eat through drawing and painting, connecting food systems, land and imagination.
* Asemic Writing: intuitive mark-making and ensō painting with sumi-e ink, freed from fixed meaning, to explore our connection to the natural world.
* Edible Flowers: a close study of flowering edible plants to build an embodied understanding of ecological interdependence.
* Pollinators: drawing and painting bees, butterflies and other pollinators, tracing the relationships that keep plants, food systems and ecosystems alive.

Vivienne works with corporate teams, purpose-led organisations, charities, foundations, schools, universities and cultural institutions, in person in London and the UK and internationally.

---