Walking Forest: a living artwork made of trees

Aim

We will work with people and trees, co-creating an inspiring woodland honouring people, other species and stories of hope and resilience.

Walking Forest is a decade long public art project created at a time of climate and nature crisis.

We are creating a living artwork of trees close to the heart of England and connected by a 100 mile walking route, a camino, to a one hundred year old sentinel Suffragette tree in Batheaston.  Woven through with stories of trees, people, courage and resilience, the project will create a myriad of inner and outer journeys for those connecting with it.

We need your help to enable us to plan, plant and involve people in designing and creating the woodland and walk that will honour people, species, and stories of hope and resilience across time and geographies. 

The woodland and camino walk will include onsite and digital storytelling, site specific artworks and invitations to participate, opening up the senses and joining up stories across time and species. 

It will be a space of solitude and respite, and of company and abundance. A place for grief, and a place for courage. We are bringing this living landscape to life, and we want you to be a part of it. 

About Us:

Walking Forest is a collaboration between four experienced artists: Ruth Ben-Tovim, Shelley Castle, Anne-Marie Culhane, and Lucy Neal. We have been co-creating site-based and community-inclusive eco-artworks, working for, with and on behalf of Earth, combining our expertise in producing large-scale and long-term projects through visual art, performance, ritual, writing, and mentoring.

It started with a seed in 2018: we collected the seeds from a 110-year-old Monteray Pine tree planted by Suffragette Rose Lamartine-Yates.  It is the last surviving tree planted as a symbol of resilience and courage between 1909-1911 by the Suffragettes in their very own Arboretum in Batheaston, Somerset.  This seed has been gifted to Earth defenders from around the world since 2018.

The tree itself has been an integral source of inspiration for the Walking Forest project and since 2018, we have been learning from the wisdom of trees and forest ecologies whilst collaborating with scientists working at the cutting edge of forest research.  Connecting with artists and communities across the UK and globally through events, community artworks, creative outdoor camps and intimate seed gifting rituals we have also involved hundreds of people in performance actions. 

Working with scientists and researchers at the University of Birmingham to understand how trees hold memory and how they are adapting to climate change through MEMBRA (a UK Treescapes project), we have brought this research into community spaces, narrowing the gap between who is involved in climate and nature policy decisions.

As we enter the next half of our 10-year project, we are bringing together our artworks, our growing network of women and Earth Defenders, and our contribution to forest research, to build the groundwork for a new woodland rooted in community collaboration, climate action and ecological restoration.

The Intentional Woodland:

The Intentional Woodland will be a living artwork made of trees that will sit close to the heart of England, connected by a 100-mile walking route - a Camino - to the hundred-year-old sentinel tree in Batheaston.

This is the last remaining ancestor of the little-known Suffragette Arboretum, which was destroyed in the 1960s to make way for a housing estate. 

The intentional woodland and Camino Walk will include onsite and digital storytelling, site-specific artworks and invitations to participate. Opening up the senses and joining up stories across time and species, people visiting the Walking Forest sites will feel emboldened, enheartened and motivated to respond to the climate and nature emergency. It will offer a public space that invites walking, gathering, reflection, learning and inspiration. Sites of rest, individual contemplation and communal gathering will be supported by appropriate and low-impact technology.

The Walking Forest Camino walk will weave its way across counties, countryside and woodlands, and will be available to travel in any direction and for any length to suit all abilities. The walk will be developed with our partner and digital route planners, Slow Ways. The path lays a trail for present and future generations, offering guidance on how to walk with hope and joy, loss and grief as well as solidarity, in the act of reconnecting with land, local distinctiveness and the natural world.

We need your help:

There will be many different physical, emotional, scientific and conceptual entry points to this living artwork, and we want to make sure that it will be accessible and inviting to everyone. 

Your support will help us to staff and resource community events, woodland design plans, and seed gifting ceremonies to make this happen.

The development of these plans involves collaboration and co-design that involves people from local communities living around the sites, project partners and the growing network of people who have connected with us through our projects in the last years.

Your donation will help us to fund these events over the next year to lay the groundwork and design that ensures people will feel emboldened, inspired, to rest, retreat, for beauty, to gather, to grieve, to learn, to do.

Our development timeline:

• 2018 – 2025: Walking Forest outreach, research and development
• 2025: Partnerships confirmed, woodland site selected, Camino walk route scoping
• 2026: Woodland site observations, Camino walk route and Woodland site co-design, and partnership development 
• 2027: Continued Woodland site and Camino walk route co-design, development and installation 
• 2028: Woodland Site and Camino Walk route launch, Spring and Summer celebration to coincide with the Centenary of Universal Suffrage (July 2028)

How we’ll spend the money raised

We need to raise a total of £10000 to bring this woodland and walk to life.

Every donation that you give will be doubled up to £250.

Here’s our budget breakdown:

£4,200  will allow us to facilitate three community talks, woodland co-design workshops and a one-day creative camp.

£2,750 will support the process of practical Woodland design, including site visits, meetings and development with specialists

£3,050 will support the growth and cultivation of trees through seed gifting performances, seed propagation, Radical Sister tree ceremonies and supporting partnerships with community tree nurseries

How you can help

There are three simple ways to get involved and support the Walking Forest woodland and walk.

1. Make a donation

Every pledge gets us closer to our goal. Early support can help build momentum and inspire others to give too.

2. Spread the word

Share this project with friends, family and your wider network. The more people we reach, the more likely we are to bring this living artwork to life.

3. Get in touch

We are collaborating with forest design experts, community nurseries and storytelling (comms) volunteers to grow this woodland and walk. If this sounds like you, or someone you know, we would love to hear from you! Click 'Contact' to get in touch.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made