Wildlife Art Instalation for Sustainable Ledbury

What does wildlife mean to you?

 

The Tale of the Bird and the Tree is a participatory art project seeking to answer this question for the people of Ledbury and those who visit our historic streets over the course of Ledbury Poetry Festival. This public art project hopes to bring us together as a community and encourage us to better connect with the natural world around us. We will be donating profits from this project to Sustainable Ledbury  - a local group dedicated to preserving the natural world around us, with the intent that this project can both engage us with nature and provide practical support to help minimise our impact on our surroundings.

 

So how does it work?

 

Two art installations are in creation to spark this conversation - The Bird (by Caroline Green) at Take4 Gallery and The Tree (by Nic Sims) at Pot & Page . These pieces will be available to view and contribute to throughout the festival. Add your own voice to the project by contributing feathers to the bird and leaves to the tree, inscribed with your own thoughts on wildlife and our relationship with it as a society. As more of us add our own mark to these public installations they will continue to grow and thrive, ready for their performance art finale at the Ledbury celebration on July 10th.

 

The final flight

 

During the Ledbury celebration, The Tree will be placed at the heart of the festivities. Meanwhile The Bird will take flight and soar over the heads of the crowd, through the town and finally land atop its perch in the tree, all accompanied by a musical piece inspired by our natural world and written by local composer Liz Dilnot Johnson , with contributions from the children attending her wildlife music workshop at the Kids’ Poetry Fayre, hosted by Pot & Page on July 2nd.

 

Why to get involved

 

This project is designed with engagement at its core. Those who get involved will not only see their contributions make a real impact on the final sculptures, but we also hope will feel a true sense of community and connection with the world around them when witnessing the final flight. After a couple of years where many of us have felt the breakdown of these important connections with both community, and our identity within those communities, we feel projects like this are now more important than ever.

 

With all profits going to Sustainable Ledbury, donations will also make a real world impact on our surroundings. Sustainable Ledbury’s mission is to reduce Ledbury’s carbon footprint and increase the efficiency of the use of its share of the world’s resources. This includes raising awareness, sharing information and helping to build community resilience to climate change. The charity acts as an "umbrella" organisation for a number of projects, including Town Trail Conservation, Plastic Free Ledbury, Repair Cafe Ledbury, and Ledbury Waste Reduction.

 

The longevity of this project will be sustained with a video of the process where all donors will be acknowledged in the credits. Donors will also be acknowledged on the project’s webpage . We also feel strongly that performers should be reimbursed for their time and effort, so please give generously within your means.

 

Any donation, big or small, will help us bring this project to life and support Sustainable Ledbury in all their future endeavours. For those not in a position to donate, please still feel free to visit the installations at Pot & Page  (8 New St. Ledbury) and Take4 Gallery  (30, The Homend, Ledbury) to contribute your own voice to this community effort.

 

Thank you for reading!