Cultural Reforesting

We are halfway through what scientists declared the crucial decade for climate action. Now, at this momentous halfway point, eighteen artists come together for the Cultural Reforesting exhibition at Orleans House Gallery, placing culture at the centre of the movement. 

The Cultural Reforesting exhibition takes place both indoors and out, and spans artworks across sculpture, video, photography, music, mapmaking and collage. It brings together a group of artists, the pulsating environment of Orleans House Gallery’s woodland and gardens, and all who step (or fly, or crawl or take root) into the gallery ecosystem. The exhibition will give all a chance to build a response to the vital question—how can we renew our relationship with nature? 

Artists in the exhibition include: Ackroyd & Harvey, Mónica Alcázar-Duarte, Ama Josephine Budge; Finn Chatwyn-Ros of Crescendo; Bryony Ella; Abigail Hunt; Adam Kammerling and Jess Ihejetoh; Kinship Workshop; Andrew Merritt of Something & Son, Eloise Moody and Vicky Long; Ivan Morison; Harun Morrison and Kim Coleman; Nestor Pestana.

In this exhibition, the artists remind us that we not only have a relationship with nature but also that we are nature. Projects from artists and collectives including Ackroyd & Harvey, Andrew Merritt (Something & Son) and Ama Josephine Budge create places for communities and ecosystems to grow and spend time together. These artists build pathways to help us be meaningfully active collaborators in—and contributors to—all our ecosystems. They remind us that we are human animals. Together, with our more-than-human neighbours, we are a growing, singing, howling forest. 

Following their research into “urban dark corridors”—local public spaces left intentionally dark to avoid artificial lighting that can disturb protected species like bats—Harun Morrison and Kim Coleman bring darkness to the exhibition. Visitors step into darkness, encountering biodiversity that we cannot see in the light. As part of their research, the artists led a series of full moon walks with the community and an ecologist. Working together and with policymakers, this project will influence local planning, balancing the needs of wildlife to have dark spaces and the needs of human animals to have safe green spaces. 

Artist Ivan Morison’s giant hayrick-like sculptures are a co-commission between Orleans House Gallery and The Sainsbury Centre. Ivan worked with East Anglian farmers, using the farmers’ straw, bean stalks and hemp. The sculptures take on new life in this exhibition, connecting our grounds on the edge of a sprawling city to the food grown for us in more rural areas of the country.  

The collaboration with the Sainsbury Centre is one of a series of partnerships that the Cultural Reforesting Programme and exhibition bring together. Others include the Henry Moore Foundation, the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival and Melting Metropolis—a Wellcome Discovery Award project based at the University of Liverpool about heat in urban centres, through the work of Bryony Ella. 

Cultural Reforesting and Richmond Arts & Ideas Festival 
Cultural Reforesting, a programme initiated by the Richmond Arts Service, is a series of artist-led, multi-disciplinary projects set in the context of the ecological crises. Cultural Reforesting is expanding into Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival 2025.  Headline artists include Raqs Media Collective, Resolve Collective, A Right/Left Project, Tania El Khoury, Nutkhut, Rafael Vilela with the Guarani Mbya Community, Nadeem Al Karimi, Qadir Jhatial, Sadqain, Bumi Thomas in collaboration with Bryony Ella, and so much more.

Events across the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames will explore our relationship with nature and reflect on the ecological crisis. The festival features dance, music, exhibitions and more, including events at Orleans House Gallery related to the Cultural Reforesting exhibition. We will celebrate the solstice with expansive moments across the borough, at the majestic river Thames and in our woodlands and imaginations. 

Find out more about the Cultural Reforesting exhibition on the Orleans House Gallery website. Discover the full festival programme on the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival website.