Upgrade Yourself Takeover: Earth Day

Upgrade Yourself is taking over Museum of Edible Earth and Serpentine Currents for a night full of making, reflecting and connecting. This evening of events, workshops, and networking is designed to help aspiring creatives aged 18–30 connect with peers and industry professionals.

To book FREE tickets, and for full information and details, please visit https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/upgrade-yourself-takeovers/earth-day-upgrade-yourself-takeover The full for Upgrade Yourself Takeover: Earth Day includes ... From My Plate to Yours: Sharing Recipes for Food and Creative Life Type: Workshop Dates:17 Apr 2026 Times: 6.00PM - 9.45PM Space: Seamen's Hall Join us for a nourishing workshop that explores the beautiful overlap between food, creativity, memory, and community. Using the language of the kitchen as a starting point for creative expression –we'll share recipes that shape us – whether that’s a family classic, a comfort meal, or something you’ve picked up on your own journey. You'll be invited to write, draw or create a collage inspired by the dishes that matter to you. Together, we’ll co‑create a communal recipe book - a collective offering that blends everyone’s dishes, memories, drawings, collages, and creative “ingredients.” A shared archive of the group—where individual stories layer together into something rich and connected. After the workshop, you’ll receive a digital copy of the book to keep and come back to whenever you need a little creative spark. No artistic experience is necessary; just a willingness to explore and connect. This drop-in workshop will be hosted by poet and facilitator Desree, in collaboration with the food magazine chicken + bread. Free Entry to Museum of Edible Earth Type: Exhibition Dates: 17 Apr 2026 Times: 6.00PM - 9.30PM Space: Terrace Room 1 For its first UK presentation, the Museum of Edible Earth comes to Somerset House, inviting visitors to explore geophagy; the practice of eating earth for health, ritual and culinary benefit. Created by artist and researcher masharu, the internationally touring museum brings together edible samples of clay, chalk and mineral-rich earths from around the world, offering a rare sensory encounter with soil. The project combines geological research, cultural histories and recorded taste impressions, inviting visitors to encounter earth as a material with flavour, texture and cultural meaning. Circular Reuse Free Play Workshop hosted by Studio TIP. Type: Workshop Dates: 17 Apr 2026 Times: 6.00PM - 9.30PM Space: Great Arch Hall Join Studio TIP for a hands-on creative workshop to play, invent and assemble, using natural and recycled factory offcuts. Free-play sessions are intended to carve out time in your day to step away from devices, switch off, think with your hands and allow intuition and curiosity to lead your making. You will discover the hidden life of everyday materials, how they feel, connect and become something new. Guided by a Material Library, discover the stories, textures, and qualities of these secondary raw materials. Then, dive into intuitive making: assemble your own mini sculptures or abstract creations using only string and wire—no glue, just imagination. Celebrate re-use, creativity and exploration in this tactile and sensory environment. This is not a structured class - it's a space for you to dive into your creativity, build, stack, sort and invent. Mess is welcome, no rules apply! No experience needed. Just curiosity. Reference Room and Quiet Space Type: Drop-in ​Dates: 17 Apr 2026 Times: 6.00PM - 9.30PM Space: Courtyard Room 2 Step into our Earth Day Reference Room – a living breathing space that brings together community voices, creative experiments, and inspiring resources. A quiet, calming space with books from our residents, community and our research library. Earth Tenders workshop - exploring memory through herbs Type: Workshop Dates: 17 Apr 2026 Times: 6.15PM - 6.45PM, 7.00PM - 7.30PM, 8:15PM - 8:45PM, 9:00PM - 9:30PM Space: Courtyard Meeting Room Join us for a workshop where land, food and herbs become a pathway to memory, culture and healing. Create your own grounding herbal tea bags and participate in collage making layering textures, stories and plant wisdom. This is a space for creativity and reflection. We invite you to slow down, engage with the stories of the plants we share and reconnect with the nourishment of the land. Earth Tenders is a black-led nature connection and community gardening project based in South London. We are responding to the collective call for BPOC-led and affirming spaces within earth practices. At the growing site we offer free or low-cost workshops and training in food growing, medicine making, nature walks, crafts and wellbeing practices Making pigment & paint with Earth – Hosted by Lucy Mayes Type: Workshop Dates: 17 Apr 2026 Times: 6.15PM - 7.45PM, 8.05PM - 9.35PM Space: Terrace Room 2 Join artist and pigment maker Lucy Mayes for a hands-on workshop exploring the heritage craft of creating artist-grade pigments from raw clay. Working directly with natural earth samples, you’ll learn how to crush, wash, and sieve the material to reveal a unique palette of colours drawn straight from the landscape. Once your pigments are prepared, we’ll transform them into water-based paints, testing their properties, textures, and tonal qualities. Specially designed colour charts will be provided for you to take away a small archive of your handmade colours. Lucy will guide you step by step, sharing the provenance and history of this endangered practice, alongside poetic and philosophical reflections on the physical matter of colour - its weight, its presence, and it's deep connection to place. We will explore the earth and its entangled origin stories- the mythologies, material histories, and layered transformations that shape the ground beneath us - alongside the more-than-human collaborations through which colour comes into being. Together, we’ll consider pigment not simply as a substance, but as a co-creation between geology, climate, plant life, time, and human touch. A Walking Tour of Serpentine Currents with artist Dana-Fiona Armour Type: Tour Dates: 17 Apr 2026 Times: 6.30PM - 7.00PM, 7.30PM - 8.00PM Space: Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court Join artist Dana-Fiona Armour as she takes you through the journey of creating Serpentine Currents. “Serpentine Currents looks to raise awareness about climate change and how marine ecosystems are degrading and changing in an accessible and visually engaging way. Sea snakes are a vital, but often overlooked, indicator of marine health. By focusing on these animals, and highlighting how their existence is being threatened, I hope to draw attention to wider ocean and ecological issues.” Armour’s practice sits at the intersection of art and science. By translating complex scientific research into visual form, she invites deeper engagement with ecological knowledge and the delicate systems that sustain life. Artist Talk - Dr masharu founder of the Museum of Edible Earth. Type: In conversation Dates: 17 Apr 2026 Times: 6.30PM - 7.45PM Space: Screening Room Join Dr masharu as they take you through their process of creating the Museum of Edible Earth and present a selection of edible earth samples, sharing their stories, cultural knowledge, and food practices. You will be invited to taste the earth, share their sensory experiences, and engage in dialogue around cultural differences and relationships with the environment. The talk will expand upon the exhibition’s questions of: How do earth-eating traditions differ across cultures? Where does edible earth come from? What are the potential benefits and risks of eating earth? How do the material properties of earth influence its flavour? Across the world, creation stories tell of humans emerging from the Earth - an all-encompassing nurturer of life. As time passed, the Earth has come to be treated as separate to us: a distinct vessel for growing food or extracting materials to tend to our needs. But this is not the case. Have you ever tried to eat the Earth directly? Geophagy is the scientific name for the intentional custom of eating earth, which includes soil and earth-like substances such as clay and chalk. It is an ancient global practice driven by diverse nutritional, cultural and medicinal factors. Julies Bicycle - Climate in culture: Bring action & justice to your art Type: In conversation Dates: 17 Apr 2026 Times: 8.15PM - 9.15PM Space: Screening Room Learn how you can take action on the climate, nature and justice crises at any career level, from any corner of the arts sector. Non-profit Julie's Bicycle will cover the must-haves for creating art and programming in our rapidly changing world, including using sustainable materials, advocacy, connecting with others and ethical sponsorships. Join us to learn how creativity can be a powerful force for a just and regenerative future. Julie’s Bicycle is an international non-profit uniting culture, creativity and climate action to drive change. We work hands-on with the creative sector to find and scale cultural solutions to climate and embed action and equity in everything we do. Across almost two decades, we have partnered with, supported and nurtured over 2000 organisations and creatives. We’ve built a thriving global network of people committed to tackling climate change through culture. Tenaya King is a Climate Change and Sustainability Specialist, at Julie’s Bicycle. She has worked on climate and sustainability programmes across music, screen, festivals, visual arts, fashion, publishing and more, both in the UK and internationally. Tenaya is passionate about using connection and community to enable climate resilience and justice. Enjoy FREE delicious food from Aram by Imad or Café Petiole and practical workshops exploring circular economy creative making, natural pigment making and creative reflection on our relationship with food and its history through an anti-colonial lens. You’ll also get the opportunity to chat with industry experts about their craft, their journey and breaking into the creative world. Come alone or come with friends - we’re bringing big ideas, creative energy and good vibes - a community space soundtracked by the amazing DJ Joey Manzi. Please note: this event is for 18–30-year-olds.

What to expect:
Sculpture, Installation, Crafts, Prints