Heathland Art Project

Heathlands have a strong association with people, having been first formed through human’s intervention and then sustained over the last two thousand years through management. This, together with the obvious appeal of heathlands for their diversity of wildlife and landscape beauty so broadens their appeal to a wider cross-section of society and makes them an ideal candidate for an art project.

 

Through painting, sculpture and photography, heathlands will be revealed through the eyes of the artists. This will provide a unique insight into the complex issues surrounding heathlands from a perspective different to that of a heathland ecologist: and perhaps one better understood by the general public (for whom Action Plan targets and condition assessments are largely meaningless). 

 

Using such a visual medium as art will reveal a different but equally fundamental understanding of the importance of heathlands. It will also increase awareness of the issues involved in its maintenance, and the historical and cultural heritage that is so important in understanding and appreciating this unique landscape.

 

Previously FC has been involved in two extremely successful art projects. One, “Aig an Oir” based in the Scottish Atlantic oak-woods and another “A Sense of Place” based in the New Forest, both culminated in the production of a book of the works produced as well as an exhibition.

However this project is a little different in that it is the first to concentrate on a single habitat, a habitat that has very wide UK distribution and yet that shows so much variation from one place to another. If enough funding could be sought it is aimed that this project would run throughout 2007 culminating in an exhibition in 2008.   The timing would coincide with the publication of the new Heathland Habitat Action Plan, 10 years after the first one was published.