Making Space for Nature Artwork Unveiled!

The Making Space for Nature project has unveiled artworks capturing the breadth and beauty of wildlife in Kent and Medway to celebrate passing the halfway point in the project.

Hundreds of people across Kent and Medway have been developing the Local Nature Recovery Strategy and artists were set the challenge of coming up with work that depicts the strategy’s vision for nature, illustrating it in a way that words simply can’t.

There have been a lot of  tables, charts and reports so far, that encompass the wealth of data we have collated over the last 10 months – a necessary component of our burgeoning strategy.   But we have been lacking in a visual representation of what we are actually trying to achieve for nature recovery in the county.  That’s why we set about commissioning 5 talented artists to bring all the data to life, through detailed briefs that laid out what you have told us you want to see in our natural environment in Kent and Medway.

Finally, on Wednesday the 28th August at NIAB in East Malling, we were delighted to be able to unveil these stunning pieces of work from Amber Anderson, Louella ward, Cathy Barcham, Amie Howard and Karen King.   They have each brought a unique style to the settings they were commissioned for – urban, rural, freshwater, coastal and marine, and a wider Kent landscape, and reflected the strategy back at us in a beautiful and inspiring way!  We’d like to thank the artists for their hard work and patience on a complex brief that was continually evolving as we moved through the process of gathering and refining our priorities and potential measures for nature recovery – we think you’ll agree that they did an amazing job!

If you weren’t able to come along to our art exhibition, there are other ways you can view the work – we will be displaying them at all of our upcoming September Mapping workshops – if you haven’t signed up yet, it isn’t too late.

Head to our events page, and search for “in-person workshops” to see the listings.

Alternatively, if you are interested in just keeping up to date with all the latest developments on the Local Nature Recovery Strategy via our newsletter, you can sign up at www.makingspacefornaturekent.org.uk