Fermynwoods Contemporary Art has received a special commendation as part of the 2019 Nick Reeves Arts & Environment Award for our current programme, The Forest is the Museum.
The Nick Reeves Award celebrates an artwork, project or field of activity by an artist (or group) that has contributed innovatively to the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM)’s vision of putting creativity at the heart of environmental policy and action. The judging panel, when discussing The Forest is The Museum, were impressed by “the astute curating” of our artists residencies, and “the imaginative and strongly place-based explorations of meaning and process in the forest, in a way that is accessible to the public.”
The Forest is the Museum is our programme of artists in residence at Fineshade Wood between 2018 and 2020. The four residencies include Edwina fitzPatrick, Justin Carter, Owl Project, plus Abigail Lane and Lala Meredith-Vula.
Edwina fitzPatrick used her residency to address climate change in both scientific and anecdotal terms, while Justin Carter encapsulated the area’s historic relationship between the natural and industrial with prints produced from homemade iron gall inks. Artist collective Owl Project connected natural systems with computer algorithms, ultimately producing a multimedia installation inspired by both insect and human activity. The final residency with artists Abigail Lane and Lala Meredith-Vula is currently underway and will culminate in an exhibition at the Arches at Fineshade Wood this winter.
The Nick Reeves Award is organised annually by CIWEM’s Arts and Environment Network in association with the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW), in celebration of outstanding contributions in the field of environmental arts. This special commendation was given alongside overall Award winner ‘Waterweek’, a UK based project which focuses on community engagement in the water environment, and a second commendation given to Sarah Cameron Sunde for ‘36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea’.