Arts in the Forest

Arts in the Forest was a pilot programme for Land, conducted in over six months in the summer of 2002. It was co-ordinated by Mid Pennine Arts in collaboration with the Forest of Burnley and a host of other partners.  The programme included the following projects:

Concerto for a Million Trees

Puppeteer Sarah Frangleton worked with children from the Hearing Support Unit at Ivy Bank School in Burnley to create and perform a  shadow-puppet show at the premiere of the Concerto for a Million Trees by Dave Nelson at Burnley Mechanics. The new composition celebrated the planting of hundreds of hectares of trees in the Borough of Burnley.

Millennium Woodland

Ridge Avenue’s Millennium Woodland celebration brought together over 500 children and adults in a community lantern processsion through the Brunshaw estate in Burnley. Children and local residents worked alongside artists and youth workers to create lanterns in all shapes and sizes.

Trail of Words

In this collaboration between writer Jackie Kay and sculptor Phil Bews, words and images from Jackie’s writing workshops with children and Pennine Ink writers’ group inspired Phil to create a beautiful sensory handrail and woodland carving on the Grove Lane Plantation in Padiham.

Through the Wood

This addition to the Towneley Park Sculpture Trail, created by sculptor Richard Caink, was inspired by poems written by Jackie Kay and the children and adults from the Trail of Words project.

Trees for Babies

Forty-seven local families participated in this project to help create a new family woodland at Rowley Lake in Burnley. Trees were planted for babies and local artists helped older children to dress their trees with teddy bears.