Following an award of a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship 2016, I travelled to Germany and North America to explore innovative participation in public urban green space in 2016. The research crosses over between areas of interest and work: social arts, urban green space, people and nature.
My research focused on urban parks and green space in relation to public engagement through social arts practice, design and planning, urban farming and gardening; I visited projects in Berlin in June 2016, and Vancouver Canada and Portland US in September and October.
Alongside my work as an artist, at the time of the Fellowship, I was working as the Community Projects Manager for South West London Environment Network in London supporting friends of parks groups and producing partnership and neighbourhood events and projects. I am now based in Frome, Somerset, and currently work part time with the HLF-funded Parks for People project in Sydney Gardens in Bath.
Read the full report of my research downloadable as a PDF from the WCMT website.
Watch a video introducing the research:
Posts on this blog documenting my visits to the parks, green spaces, projects and organisations:
Berlin – June 2016:
Impossible Forest – Jared Gradinger’s garden at UferStudios, Wedding
Princezzinnen Garten – urban commons, learning and growing
Langer Tag der StadtNatur – The Long Day of Nature
Intercultural Gardens & Urban Farming
Vancouver, Canada – September 2016
Iris Film Collective at the Falaise Park Fieldhouse – a meeting with Lisa G
Artists in Fieldhouses Programme – an interview with arts programmers Cyndy Chwelos and Danita Noyes, Vancouver Park Board
Moon Festival at Renfrew Ravine and Park and the return of the Salmon – a conversation with Carmen Rosen about environmental action and the arts
Mr Fire-man at the Maclean Park Fieldhouse – a Tuesday night wood carving
Bike Power at Hadden Park Fieldhouse – bike inspired making with Publik Secrets
The Bird Project, Queen Elizabeth Fieldhouse, Vancouver – a meeting with Jesse Garbe
Portland, Oregon, USA – October 2016
Psst – a Portland State University Social Practice presentation and discussion about public urban green space
Creek College – an art – environment education programme
‘Hard’ Parks in Portland – Pioneer Courthouse Square:
Houseguest – an artist residency in an urban park
City Repair – a meeting at Sunnyside Paizza
Portland Ecologists Unite! – a presentation and a conversation
Signal Fire – UnWalking the West
A list of other organisations and individuals relevant to my research in Portland, Oregon.
inquilines - art and cultivation 