A GIANT ark will be built in Oxford city centre in a bid to tackle climate change.

The Ark Project is an ambitious scheme aimed at getting children and young people fired up about environmental issues.

Organisers from Oxford-based CIAO!, the Children’s International Arts Organisation, hope to bring top environmental scientists, cultural organisations and professional artists together with hundreds of schoolchildren for a festival centred around the temporary building.

Ciao! artistic director Karen Draisey said: “The project really does bring together science, the arts and issues that affect us all in a very exciting way.

“We wanted a public spectacle that would engage people and we came up with the idea of an ark. It seems to have captured the zeitgeist.”

The project is expected to cost about £300,000. Arts Council England pledged £150,000 this week, which ensured the scheme could go ahead.

Ten county primary schools, including five in Oxford, have signed up to be involved in the project, which will culminate in the ark acting as an impromptu theatre, gallery and cinema in a central Oxford location next June. A location for the ark is yet to be decided but organisers want it to be somewhere central and highly visible.

Initial work is starting with schools now, and the project will start in earnest with a conference of 600 schoolchildren and leading environmental scientists at the Sheldonian Theatre in January.

Pupils are being asked to consider what they would take with them in an ark if they were sailing away towards a low-carbon future.

Ark project director Emma Howell said: “An ark is something children can instantly identify with because it’s such a cultural symbol, but really it’s a way for them to get a sense of what you would take and what you would leave behind.

“The ark will be set in a sea of troubles as children leave behind things like trainers, weapons and foolishness.”

Ms Howell said she was impressed with the way children had tackled the issue in initial sessions.

She said: “People underestimate the capacity of children.

“Nobody was saying they would save a Playstation.

“They were choosing important, philosophical things like taking water and leaving behind war.”

Designer Nomi Everall, of Pegasus Theatre, is working with Oxford-based Architecture sans Frontière on the design and construction of the ark, which will be inspired by the children’s ideas.

Organisations and individuals who have signed up to the scheme include Nick Cope of the Candyskins, Oxford Literary Festival, Oxford Playhouse, Pegasus Theatre, photographer Rose Gorman, The Roald Dahl Museum and the Story Museum.

Oxford University institutions, Oxford Brookes University, Science Oxford and the Northmoor Trust will also take part.

During the festival, on June 21-27, the children will perform or exhibit their work in front of the ark, inside it and on the top deck.