I have been very fortunate to work with Groundwork Cheshire on a commission at their Grozone project since October. Â The commission is an extended participatory project – working with volunteers and visitors to the Community Garden to create an arts trail using materials from the garden around the theme of Humans within our Landscape.
At the first session we worked together on a creative ‘writing’ exercise (I did the writing and the volunteers did the creative!). Â They produced a wonderful poem, which takes in all of the senses and the experience of being in the garden.
Working with each volunteer individually at different times, I helped them to incorporate their ideas of creativity into a coherent plan, using parts of the garden that were disused and also bringing horticulture and ecology into the plan.
What has developed is an evolving series of works including:
- A Willow Cloud suspended between two trees
- A Storytelling Circle with suspended wooden glocks (Almost finished!)
- An Entrance Wall with a poetry puzzle (still in progress!)
- A Silver Birch Spider fungus sculpture
- A stacked wooden staircase (Still in progress)
Volunteers have worked really hard to develop ideas and to help shape the garden and the arts trail, as you will see from the photographs.
