Five Hectares
In 2020 Chrysalis Arts began to evolve a new programme of Slow Art called Five Hectares. The programme was designed to explore ways of engaging deeply with nature, climate, place and sustainability over an extended period.
As part of Five Hectares, we ran a pilot project during 2021 and 2022 which aimed to help people enjoy greater connections with the natural world as we emerged from lockdown. We worked with schools and communities in the area around Gargrave where we’re based, developing a combination of in-person and online creative activities. We also collaborated with ecologists Mark Hewitt and Fran Graham and three professional artists, Alice Fox, David Haley and Alun Kirby. We hoped that, by working together as a group, we would be able to evolve new approaches and ways of working that would inform and enrich the environmental content of our future programmes.
Through this process, we developed the idea of creating an Environmental Atlas of the area. We invited people to contribute their own artworks and reflections on the aspects of place that matter to them and to take part in a range of workshops, walks and conversations. The Atlas incorporates poetry, photography, maps, textiles, painting and drawing created by local people, with additional individual contributions from the three artists, and has been beautifully brought together and bound by Alice Fox.