Discover The Forest of Imagination 2016
03 May 2016
Research proves that creativity, imagination and inspiration can literally transform your emotional and physical wellbeing, providing nourishment for the human soul that will positively lift your spirits and enhance your daily physical experience.
The Forest of Imagination will provide the city of Bath and all of its residents with this creative injection of curiosity for four days in June. The Forest of imagination is not just for children, but for adults, the old, the young, the curious and the shy.
A number of forests will take root and physically grow in and around Bath Abbey. The importance of forests, both global and local, will be brought into sharp focus with 1,000 living and handmade trees transforming the spaces around Bath Abbey, Abbey Green and beyond.
Portals – the entrances and doorways into the Forest of Imagination – will be created in collaboration with local schools and artists and these portals will allow the public to pass through the gateway from their normal existence and ‘enter’ the Forest of Imagination so that creativity, freedom and imagination can take over.
The Forest will build this environment right in the heart of the city and it will actively encourage a shared freedom of thought, a reason to be playful, indulging senses in a physical, visual and sound experience that you would not normally encounter. Let down your guard, be free of the reigns of conformity and condition. Set your senses and your imagination free.
Interactive installations, workshops and artworks will provide each and every person that visits Forest with an inspiring place to immerse themselves in creativity, contemporary and intuitive play – that freedom that each child takes for granted but that adults have to locate deep within themselves.
The Eyes of the Forest is this year’s theme and we want to ignite the collective consciousness and consider nature in its wildest forms from the exotic Baobab tree in deepest Madagascar, to the inhabitants of this wild island including the lemurs, which will be featured by a Bristol Zoo led conservation project, the beautiful butterflies and Octopus trees. To British forests and their native species and animals and the Plane trees that live and breathe in the heart of many cities, including Bath, we want to heighten our engagement with nature and the city.
By creating new ways of seeing both the natural world around us and our own city we hope to encourage new ways of thinking.
The Forest of Imagination is a collaboration and the brainchild of a team of Bath-based businesses, including landscape architects Grant Associates, arts-based charity 5x5x5=creativity, creative consultancy Imaginnovation and architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. It aims to highlight the inherent creativity of Bath and connect people with nature by reinventing spaces in the city to inspire intuitive play, unleash imagination and encourage exploration.
Herman Miller Cares is once again headline sponsor of the event. Other key event collaborators for the 2016 event will include Bath Abbey, Bath Spa University, Bristol Zoo, RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts), children’s play charity The House of Fairy Tales and local schools. Artists, designers and makers already signed up to the event include Martyn Ware, Edwina Bridgeman, Jessica Palmer, Anthony Head, Clare Day, Jono Burgess, Alison Harper, James Aldridge and students from the Bath School of Art and Design.