A groundbreaking book, which brings together a collection of postcards highlighting environmental threats to our oceans, has gone on display in the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York.
Sea Change was created by Tobias Hickey, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for Illustration at the University of Worcester and was selected for the exhibition ‘Turning the Page on Change – Children’s Books Inspiring Action for the Global Goals’, which runs until Friday, March 13.
The book features illustrations submitted by artists from around the world.
“It’s exciting to think that the book itself is in front of policymakers at the United Nations; people who are actually global leaders working on ocean literacy, working towards climate change solutions,” he said. “I hope it has that power to inspire.”
The exhibition is staged by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in collaboration with United Nations Publications.
It features more than 170 illustrated children’s books from across the globe, which were selected from submissions to the BolognaRagazzi Awards 2025 – organized every year by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, in Italy – in the Sustainability category. Each one engages with one or more topics of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in the case of Sea Change SDG 14 – Life Below Water.
Mr Hickey invited illustrators worldwide to submit illustrated postcards featuring an illustration on one side and a message on the other. The call attracted 450 entries, leading to the Sea Change exhibition in 2022, which has since toured internationally. Fifty of the postcards were later selected for the book, published in 2023.
It follows on from the Migrations project back in 2017, a response to the migrant crisis which similarly called on artists to submit postcard responses. This was the first major undertaking of the University’s International Centre of the Picture Book in Society, which aims to use art to shine a light on social issues, which Mr Hickey co-founded in 2015.
“I think there’s something special and inclusive about a collection curated from around the world and brought together in a single physical piece,” said Mr Hickey. “Pictures have a universal language, and a real power to engage people. Persuasive illustration can answer, resist and protest.”
The book and exhibition have become learning resources within educational and community environments, used as starting points for discussion, but also inspiring them to create their own artwork in response.
“Sea Change has been used in schools from Malvern to Slovakia to Singapore,” said Mr Hickey. “The book has been distributed all around the world. Teaching staff are using it to engage students with difficult subject matters concerning human experiences – loss of habitat and climate change.”
He added: “It’s also promoting ocean literacy. Although we’re not shying away from the impact of pollution and declining ocean biodiversity, illustrators are very good at highlighting those issues while also celebrating what we do have and why it’s worth fighting for. That sense of empathy and celebration is clear in the book.”