Your River Your Way
The River Wandle, a rare and precious chalk stream nature habitat, runs through our neighbourhood. How well do you know it? How often do you wander alongside it? How accessible and meaningful is the river to you?
We invite you to join us and spend time sharing your understanding of the river, what it currently means to you and how you might like to see yours and the wider community's relationship with this unique nature space develop and improve. Working with South East Rivers Trust and London National Park City Rangers, your thoughts and reflections will feed into Chalk Stream Connectors, a project designed to improve access to, understanding and appreciation of, chalk streams.
Who is this for?
This workshop is open to all. We are particularly keen to hear from people who feel underrepresented in green spaces, including older people (65+), Young people (16-30), carers (young people and adults), individuals with disabilities, health conditions or impairments, and people from minoritised ethnic backgrounds
What’s involved?
Working with local London National Park City Rangers and artists Elly Platt and Doug Shaw, you are invited to come together for a short talk and conversation about the river. You will have an opportunity to discuss and share your current experience of the river, learn more about this important nature space, and interact with it by taking a gentle, mindful wander along a section of the river, reflecting on your experience as you go.
Your reflections will be brought to life in various forms including:
Writing
Sketching
Sewing
Printmaking
You will be gently guided by Elly and Doug, who both know and have experience of the river, and the suggested creative practices we will explore. Once the walk is concluded, you are invited to curate your reflections into your own handmade zine.
The learning, sharing, and work we create together will help South East Rivers Trust improve its understanding of how people currently feel about the river, and will feed into a funding application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which if successful will enable changes to be made to ensure the rivers are more welcoming and accessible for everyone.
About Your Guides
Elly is a textile artist whose creations are inspired by the natural world. Using fabric waste collected along the River Wandle, Elly’s work reflects on our interactions with our local green spaces. She teaches clothes repair and community sewing workshops to share skills that reduce our impact on the environment.
www.instagram.com/takeitupwearitout
Doug is a freelance mixed media artist, naturalist, and community project manager. As a boy, Doug was a member of the Young Ornithologists Club and used to spend hours out and about bird spotting. That interest has never left him and he remains a keen birdwatcher. He’s also really interested in insects and regularly spends time in local green spaces and along our local chalk stream, The Wandle, observing and recording what he sees. Doug takes lots of nature photos. Nature and our relationship with it is a key theme in his artistic practice, and much of his project work is focused on the arts and nature involving local community groups.
This work is supported by South East Rivers Trust
Location
Vellum Mill Gallery, SM5 2JR