We are excited our new creative avenue to nurture river kinship is now live.
Initially, we will be running participatory eco-conscious photography and eco-acoustic workshops in St Agnes, Cornwall, and Barnstaple (tbc in 2025), Devon. These aim to inspire people to take action for river health through creative means.
It is your generosity in this year’s Big Give Green Match Fund that helped us to secure over £5,000 for the Westcountry Artivists to Enhance Rivers (WAtER) pilot project. This is happening because of you.
Wow! What a start...
WOW! What a wonderful way to start our pilot arts and science project on Saturday 5 October in St Agnes.
Thank you to the amazing participants who got creative with eco-photography and eco-acoustics and connected/reconnected to water in new ways.
Josie & Harry ready to run the arts session
Big thanks to sound artist/researcher Dr Harry Ovington and our own comms manager/photo artist/researcher Josie Purcell for sharing their skills and freshwater-related knowledge.
The fab Ella and Harry from Genki Gornwall kept everyone happy with drinks and beautiful brunch too.
Ella & Harry from Genki
We’ll be working on the artworks and sound work during the winter and will have a second session in #Devon (tbc) in the early Spring 2025, followed by an interactive exhibition to share the work.
Final words from some of the attendees:
“The session as informative, creative, and relaxing. I did things I haven’t done before – thank you, I felt fortunate to attend.”
“Loved it – Josie and Harry were both really knowledgeable, passionate, and inspiring.”
“Amazing! I’m inspired to start creating art with my class at school. I loved that I was looking at ordinary objects from a new lens and listening to a stream I know well was magical.”
“Excellent morning. So lovely to slow down and listen, look, talk and create so inter-connectedly with water. My whole system feels grounded and peaceful afterwards. Thank you.” ♥️
Watch and listen below to our work in progress video, showcasing snippets of conversation, water sounds and some of the artwork made on the day.
Thank You – your generosity helped us smash our fundraising target.
Our Eco-conscious Photography Gallery so far...
In addition to my role with the trust, I’m an eco-conscious photographic artist. This has given me first-hand experience of how nature-based art activities provide a wonderful way to encourage water stewardship. They can connect people to a river’s amazing habitat, which can help its health and biodiversity while supporting human wellbeing too.
Through the WAtER project, we want to spark river kinship and visually share river stories through eco-conscious photographic and acoustic activities. By doing so, we aim to bolster public understanding of river eco-systems and the work to be done to keep these healthy for all who depend on them.
We collaborate with a wide variety of people to protect Westcountry river habitats.
From working with farmers to improve soil health which in turn improves water quality, to planting the right trees in the right place to minimise run-off, to engaging volunteer citizen scientists to monitor the waterways near their homes – it is all done to keep bringing our rivers to life.
Please donate to support our charity if you can.