Nerve Centre
Nerve Centre is Northern Ireland’s leading creative media arts organisation. Based in Derry~Londonderry (with work also in Belfast), Nerve Centre opens up possibilities for young people through arts, heritage, culture, digital media and community-driven projects.
As part of its commitment to creativity, heritage and community engagement, Nerve Centre runs Power Plants — an ambitious, emerging heritage-engagement programme that connects art, nature, and sustainability.
What is “Power Plants”
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Power Plants is a creative initiative imagining our relationship with “power” — not just energy, but the many forms of power: nature, knowledge, memory, love, politics, money. Through the programme, audiences are invited to reflect on how we generate, use, and value power — and how we can redirect it to restore balance with nature. nervecentre.org
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The project centres on a striking sculptural installation: towering, industrial-style chimneys filled with vibrant flowers, symbolising native plant species, biodiversity, and the possibility of regeneration. nervecentre.org+1
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Complementing the installation is an immersive augmented-reality (AR) experience — co-created with community participants — designed to deepen engagement and understanding of heritage, power, and our environment. nervecentre.org+1
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The installation and AR experience are planned to tour iconic heritage sites across Northern Ireland and the UK, making “Power Plants” accessible to a wide public, including school communities.
What Nerve Centre / Power Plants offers to Schools & Young People
Through Power Plants and its wider work, Nerve Centre brings to schools and youth communities opportunities to engage with sustainability, heritage, creativity, and environmental awareness:
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Creative-heritage education — Power Plants is designed to help people (especially young people) think about how “power” affects our natural heritage, how we use resources, and how we relate to the living world. This offers an excellent platform for Eco-Schools to explore themes like biodiversity, climate justice, environmental responsibility, and community wellbeing.
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Inclusive, engaging experiences — The mix of large-scale public art, AR technology, and community participation makes the project accessible and appealing to diverse age groups — from primary schools to young people in their late teens.
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Hands-on and immersive learning — Through workshops, events, and (when launched) tours of the installation, pupils can experience learning about nature, heritage, and sustainability in creative, sensory, and impactful ways. For example, a part of Power Plants’ extended activity programme is Root Camp — a three-day nature, creativity and heritage programme for young people aged 13–18, combining citizen science, habitat creation, and artistic making.
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Bridging arts, heritage and environment — Nerve Centre shows how culture and creativity can be powerful tools for environmental engagement, helping pupils to see sustainability not just as science or policy, but as something deeply connected to identity, heritage, and community.
Learn more about Nerve Centre and Power Plants: www.nervecentre.org