Becky Warnock selected as lead artist for Garden Estate
Becky Warnock has been selected as the lead artist for our Garden Estate project with Moulsecoomb Forest Garden and Wildlife Project.
The artist will work with user groups and local school children at Moulsecoomb Forest Garden in its 30th anniversary year, exploring what makes the garden so special.
Becky will run photography workshops creating visual stories about the garden and the journeys of the people who spend time there.
“I love that the garden explores the connection between collective wellbeing and nature. It’s rooted in the understanding that mental health, like physical health, fluctuates continuously and requires upkeep, just like a garden needs care and nurture.” says Becky.
Resulting images will feature in the eleventh edition of the biennial Photo Fringe festival this October, with outdoor exhibitions in Moulsecoomb and Brighton beach.
Another product of Garden Estate will be a learning resource for local school children, drawing attention to food production, local community gardens and the role photography storytelling plays with gardening, wellbeing and campaigning for a greener planet.
Daisy Brown, the volunteer coordinator at Moulsecoomb Forest Garden, says “Our charity isn’t just about gardening. It plays an important part of the social glue that binds communities together, with all types of people, young and old, pupils having problems at school and people with learning difficulties working together in a beautiful, fun and genuinely inclusive environment. Growing, cooking and eating delicious food together is a big part of it. We’re really happy to be working with Photo Fringe and that Garden Estate will share our stories with so many new people.”
Garden Estate is funded by Brighton & Hove City Council’s Shared Prosperity Fund, Chalk Cliff Trust, East Brighton Trust and Arts Council England.
About Becky Warnock
[Image: Becky Warnock by Joanne Coates]
Becky Warnock is an artist and educator based in London. Alongside her practice, she lectures at London College of Communication.
Her work is collaborative and research-based, often including participatory workshops using photography and other mediums to initiate dialogue. Working across photography, film and performance, her practice is developed through relationship-building and meaningful engagement.
With a background in community engagement and support work, Becky’s practice is engaged with the ethics and structures of care and collective experience. Her work is often situated within mental health and trauma discourse, moving outwards from active grief using creative processes as tools to articulate complex and layered conversations. She is particularly interested in connection and interdependence, plus the somatic processing that occurs when bodies come together in moments of reciprocity.
moulsecoombforestgarden.org
@moulsecoomb_forest_garden
