Fred Winter Centre
Lead Artist: Emma Waterford

Creative gardener Emma Waterford and the Fred Winter community have created an edible sensory garden to celebrate the lives and stories of the people who come here.

Residents and visitors to the centre, have grown plants from seed, that can all be made into tea. Through a process of carefully seeding, planting and watering, alongside creative activities such as painting and writing, conversations of home, growing up and friendship have arisen. These conversations have been recorded by sound designer Peter Vilk and will be available to listen to by the sculptures by the entrance to the Fred Winter Centre.

Stratford Escape, Escape Arts
Lead Artist: Lisa Franklin

Artist Lisa Franklin has worked with Escape Arts' weekly art group, Stratford Escape. The group have shared stories of forests and wild creatures and explored their identity within the natural world. They’ve looked at how we connect, both through language and non-verbal communication, exploring making music with hands and through mushrooms.

This music has been captured and created into a soundscape by Peter Vilk and you can hear it playing from within the sculptures on the Bancroft Terrace.

Sporting Memories, Stratford Sports Club
Lead Artist: Emma Waterford

Workshops at the Sports Club have focused on the connections between the people taking part, as well as exploring the senses engaged in participating in sport - what you hear, smell, taste, see and feel. These were captured through words and poems, and then written on to pieces of seed paper. The poems have been planted at the Sports Club where the group can watch their memory and experiences grow. The group have also made medallions and imprinted onto natural clay while discussing their stories, allowing the physical actions of creating something to stimulate their minds and brain function.

Their willow sculpture, called Scatter, forms a shelter over a commemorative bench located at the front of the Sports Club and is accessible for everyone to visit.

Clopton Connect, Ken Kennett Centre
Lead Artist: Lisa Franklin

Working with artist Lisa Franklin, Clopton Connect members were invited to make ornaments to be woven into the sculptures whilst sharing their stories, dreams and ambitions. The group have explored their connections to Stratford-upon-Avon, sharing photos and creating pictures of Stratford from their childhood to now.

Read the poem created from words and stories of Clopton Connect, written by Lisa Franklin:
I Come From Clopton

Nests is a collection of hanging shelters and bird houses made from woven willow, cloth and mycelium, the root-like structure of mushrooms. It can be found on the Clopton Canal, by lock 54, just off Great William Street.

New Meaning
Lead Artist: Kurly McGeachie

New Meaning is a local organisation that helps young people to develop new skills and feel inspired about their future. Through facilitated poetry workshops lead by Kurly McGeachie, the group have explored the power of words, creating poems about their lives and their ambitions for future. These poems have all been recorded by Peter Vilk and can be heard by scanning the QR code by their sculpture, Bud, in Avonbank Gardens.
The group have also been working towards part of their Silver Arts Award, a qualification that gives young people the chance to take on an artistic challenge and a leadership role too.

Copernicana
Lead Artist: Lisa Franklin

Copernicana members have been exploring their sense of place, asking what makes a place home and how their lives connect between Poland and here in Stratford-upon-Avon. Through workshops the group have made wildflower bricks, written poems and danced to music created through a mycelium network.
Reflecting the dualities within the play Hamnet, the sculptures in the Swan Garden, titled Twin Pods have a natural seedpod-like shape to symbolise the connections between twins Hamnet and Judith, and ideas of life and death, grief and gratitude.