The Landing Project is a two-year project based in Shropshire that unites artists, farmers, environmental practitioners, schools and local communities through on-farm artist residencies and a programme of workshops, public events and exhibitions. It explores how creative activities can offer alternative pathways to communicate about how we farm the UK, and constructive ways to imagine positive futures for our farmland.
Seeds of connection: To explore how land is managed as a partnership between people and nature for producing good food, strengthening biodiversity, building community resilience and adapting to climate change.
Rural labour in art: From ancient landscapes to contemporary portrayals, we will explore the art of working the land, tracing its journey through history and into the future.
Community voices: Build real and conceptual structures for diversified rural voices to communicate their experiences and perspectives of living within farming landscapes at a time of change. Recording and sharing stories and artworks to give voice to land managers, farmers and rural communities raising awareness of the challenges they face, and developing a local archive documenting the cultural value of farmland and rural landscapes.
Field work: Invite those often absent from the dialogue of land use to walk the fields, map past cultivation, confront present challenges, and envision future landscapes. The lead artists will engage communities with projects on agroforestry and creative mapping of three sites near Weston Rhyn: Bronygarth Orchard Garden, the adjacent Temple Field Agroforestry Research Site, and Berllan Deg Farm.
Residency Framework: Establish pathways for future artists to experience residencies in agricultural settings, nurturing creativity connected with the land.
Key Sites and Partners:
Bronygarth Orchard Garden, Temple Field Agroforestry Research Site, Berllan Deg Farm, Sidney Nolan Trust, Qube Arts, CPRE Shropshire, Harper Adams University, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shropshire Good Food Partnership, Weston Rhyn Primary School, Shropshire Archives, Shropshire Museums Service, Vibrant Shropshire / Shropshire Council, Rural Art Hub.
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Leadership and Support:
The project is led by artists Molly Brown and Andrew Howe, supported with a grant from the National Lottery awarded by Arts Council England and additional funding from The Ulrike Michal Foundation and CPRE Shropshire.