Join us to meander terrains of radical botany, queer ecology, watery borders and tune-in to the unheard language of plants.
Programme Committee
NewBridge Gallery is now closed until Friday 16 October.
You can join us on 5 September and 3 October for Saturday Social. You can still shop NewBridge Books throughout the weekdays!
Join us to meander terrains of radical botany, queer ecology, watery borders and tune-in to the unheard language of plants.
Taking place in various rural and urban landscapes in Northumberland and Tyneside, this series of public walks meanders terrains of radical botany, queer ecology, watery borders and unheard plants. How have agents, both human and more-than-human, shaped land, people, plants and wildlife? What ideas, practices and normalisations might we need to un-learn in order to re-establish a deep sense of belonging to our land and plant life neighbours?
Walking is our chosen method. Through walking, our bodies and other senses can be tools for attention and awareness. Through walking, we learn what the people, the soil, the plants and trees, the waters, the fungi and more-than-human life (of past and present, near and far) have to say. We will walk, but also pause, draw attention inwards and outwards, listen, read and move collectively.
Guiding these three walks are: artist and landscape architect Emily Cropton, writer Tom Jeffreys and curator Tiki Muir; horticultural tutor and forest-gardener Than Gunabalasingham and herbalist Claire Turner; and ecologist Dr Laura Braunholtz.
A Revolt in Bernicia’s Garden is a programme exploring our relationship to plant-life and land.
Before its current name of ‘Northumbria’, in the 6th century Bernicia stretched from the River Forth to the River Tees. Today Bernicia’s Garden is a speculative, imagined land, an allotment plot, a hillside, a moorland, a river, a forest garden, filled with microbial kin, people, plants and animals. There are no enclosures. There are no landowners.
A Revolt in Bernicia’s Garden is a programme initiated by artist Holly Argent with The NewBridge Project’s Programme Committee, in which you are invited to walk, garden, and study with the land. Entangled with questions of intimacy, access, ownership, land rights, queer ecology and food sovereignty; these acts are always political.
The programme is intentionally slow and shaped around three public walks, a season of skill-sharing workshops with queer gardening group TopSoil; and a long-term research commission.
Poster design by Benji Spence.
NewBridge has additional funding for access, to support people delivering and taking part in our programmes.
We have small access bursaries available to support people to take part in the public walks. This is a no questions asked process and we can support requests of up to £50 per person.
This fund can cover costs towards circumstances that might otherwise make it difficult for you to attend. For example: travel costs within Tyneside and the surrounding area to get you to and from the event, child-care costs, percentage toward loss of income for the time period of the event. You don’t need to share any evidence with us, just let us know that you need support to attend the walk. To claim the bursary you will then need to provide an invoice.
A Revolt in Bernicia’s Garden is taking place outside, specific details about what to expect, access, and practicalities will be shared on each event page soon. Please get in touch with us on admin@thenewbridgeproject.com to make a request for support or if you have any questions.
NewBridge has a Safer, Braver Spaces policy. Everyone here treats each other with respect and consideration. Transphobia, misogyny, racism or harassment of any kind is not welcome.
Walking Bernicia’s Garden is part of A Revolt in Bernicia’s Garden at The NewBridge Project, a programme exploring our relationship with plant life and the land. Developed by artist Holly Argent with The NewBridge Project’s Programme Committee.
Saturday 11 October, Saturday 18 October, Saturday 25 October
Free
The NewBridge Project is a charity, registered charity no. 1173849.
We are grateful to our funders, including Arts Council England, Newcastle City Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, Jerwood Foundation, Community Foundation North East, Newcastle University and the The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority.
We are proud to be a Gallery of Sanctuary.
