The Launch of Forest of Imagination
News
The Opening of the 10th Anniversary Forest of Imagination
Friday, 16 June, 2023Vice Chancellor of Bath Spa University, Professor Sue Rigby has officially opened the 10th Anniversary Forest of Imagination at the Assembly Rooms in Bath.
The award-winning, free-to-attend contemporary arts event invites adults and schoolchildren to 'Assemble in the Forest' and connect with nature in a host of imaginative ways.
The month-long celebration is open to the public from 14 June to 14 July 2023 at the historic National Trust property, the Assembly Rooms in Bath City Centre.
Spaces inside and outside the building have been transformed into a series of playful, nature-inspired art experiences, offering visitors the chance to immerse themselves in multi-sensory installations, soundscapes and sculptures, join artists' workshops, and explore a whole host of creative and community projects from top local and international artists, designers and businesses.
Vice Chancellor of Bath Spa, Professor Sue Rigby described the Forest of Imagination as:
“Our celebration of the deep roots of innovation and creativity that are in all of us, it's our potential space to thrive.”
At the opening event on Wednesday, Professor Rigby encouraged us to:
"Own that capacity to thrive, to own your own creativity, to own your own curiosity. Because those are your superpowers. They might just make you feel better, more likely, you will make other people feel better.”
She added:
“More broadly for people who still believe that we need to change the world, and that's probably all of us in this room, it's not money that will change the world, or politics. It's the sensible use of creativity, the intelligent choices about intent, and the ethical basis for action. That doesn't come from hot sweaty offices. It doesn't come from banks, and it doesn't come from armies. It comes from inside your head. This is your space to inhabit changing the whole world, or inhabiting just being lovely to the person next to you.
It's a place to inhabit the imagination that can take you anywhere and change anything and give us as a species a degree of optimism. No chatbot or AI can think our way through this. But we can, as long as we have the right spaces, the right colleagues, and the right friends to do it with.”
The Forest of Imagination was masterminded a decade ago by House of Imagination, Grant Associates, and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios in partnership with Bath Spa University. The partners have been working alongside the creative, cultural and educational community of Bath and each year a familiar space in Bath is re-imagined to highlight the importance of nature and imagination in all of our lives.
Over the last 10 years, more than 60,000 visitors have attended and over 100,000 interacted with the contemporary arts event online. Every year around 20 local schools, five partner universities and 50 artists and creative professionals help grow new branches of the unique event.
Dr Penny Hay, Forest of Imagination co-founder and Reader and Research Fellow at Bath Spa University said:
“For the past ten years, Forest of Imagination has been a truly collaborative event which gives it a unique creative energy – and that very much continues to be the case in 2023. At a period of great transition and change for our world, this is a time to collectively and creatively come together to imagine how things can be different in the future.”
For the first time ever, this year nearly all schools at Bath Spa are involved, from students working on accredited modules, professional placements, internships and graduate internships, to staff engagement across research groups and centres. Forest of Imagination invites everyone to think and make together, through an ecological approach to learning. It’s a fun and meaningful way to get involved in hopeful actions for change in the face of the ecological emergency.
Forest of Imagination is a partnership between Bath Spa University, House of Imagination Grant Associates, and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios working alongside the creative, cultural and educational community of Bath.
To find out more about all the evolving programme for Forest of Imagination 2023, visit their website.