Watch the Nature Calling film
Nature Calling was the National Landscapes’ first national arts commissioning programme, developed and delivered by the National Landscapes Association, national executive arts producer partners Activate Performing Arts and England’s National Landscapes. The programme concluded with a season of public performances, exhibitions, workshops and events during summer 2025.
After 18 busy months of commissioning, co-creation and sharing comes a moment of reflection. Today we’re publishing our evaluation of Nature Calling and sharing the final film summarising and celebrating the whole incredible programme.
There is so much to celebrate: from Countryfile highlighting the impact of Nature Calling on the young people involved, through featuring in a National Gallery lates event, to being namechecked by Nature Minister Mary Creagh in her address to the National Landscapes’ annual conference, and the feedback we got through the evaluation demonstrates how effectively National Landscapes teams managed to reach new audiences and give them positive experiences in nature.
National Landscapes have shown great ambition to provide access to quality green spaces and welcome new audiences – particularly highlighted by Nature Calling which is amplifying voices and sharing interpretations of Protected Landscapes across the nation through a season of artwork.
Mary Creagh, Nature Minister
Nature Calling’s genesis was in the Landscapes Review by Julian Glover, which identified that protected landscapes could do much more to serve the full spectrum of the nation’s communities. We secured funding from Arts Council in the most competitive environment they have experienced with an inspiring vision of artistic co-creation alongside people who might not have easy access to both nature and art. Defra provided match funding via the Protected Landscapes Partnership – the first time the department has invested in a national arts programme.
Evaluating a programme on this scale was a massive undertaking and the report covers the full scope of the art commissioning process, partnership working across National Landscapes and the wider Protected Landscape Partnership relationships. It looked at how many people we engaged in co-creating the artworks as well as how many saw the final works, and their demographic details, to measure our success in reaching new people. We worked with The Evaluator team who crunched the numbers for us.
Their report covers over 18 months of activity, primarily focusing on the spine of the programme: the 12 major commissions (six writing commissions and six art commissions in the ‘hub’ National Landscapes: Chilterns, Dorset, Forest of Bowland, Lincolnshire Wolds, Mendip Hills and Surrey Hills), and the 18 National Landscapes involved as ‘spoke’ locations, as well as two National Parks.
School children enjoyed visits to the Forest of Bowland National Landscape, recording deep sounds of nature and singing together.
The results
Reaching new audiences
The way Nature Calling was designed asked National Landscapes teams to identify and reach people within a half hour journey time of the National Landscape who might not have visited it before, for their commissioned artists to then engage with these communities in the landscape in new and collaborative ways. The programme enabled National Landscapes teams to benefit from working with locally based arts producer organisations, with both parties sharing their expertise and knowledge of how to reach and connect with audiences, and how to interpret the landscape, bringing new perspectives.
The teams stepped up and we smashed almost all of our targets:
- 8,258 active participants engaged (against a target of 4,923)
- Live audience of over 55,000 people
- Online and digital audiences surpassed 550,000 (target 4,933), supported by features on BBC Countryfile and an expanded programme of digital content across the projects.
It's peaceful here. I could come here… I could just come here!
Attendee
Luton Henge launched with an all day festival with dancing, poetry, crafts and music.
Teaching staff on a Nature Calling activity reported that the group of young people attending “were often easily distracted” and that they had “rarely seen them so engaged.”
Local communities and, more importantly, new visitors were engaged, representing groups from all backgrounds and ages. The evaluation shows how successfully teams reached new and diverse audiences:
- 35% of participants were from the most deprived households in the UK (21% IMD1 and 14% IMD2)
- 34% identified as from a global majority ethnic background
- 25% were under 19 years old
- 24% identified as disabled
The evaluation also looked at the audience’s existing ‘connection to nature’, revealing that those with lower self-identified connection to nature were more likely to hear about Nature Calling activities through a group they attend or simply by stumbling on it – demonstrating the importance of delivering activities where people are.
Young people visited caves in the Mendip Hills National Landscape as part of the co-creation of the artwork.
In order to make our protected landscapes truly welcoming, organisations need to consider a wide range of strategies to break down these barriers. An example of this from the PLP includes Nature Calling, a flagship programme led by the National Landscapes Association, which works closely with artists in the landscape to engage new audiences in our towns, cities and countryside.
Marian Spain, CEO Natural England
What’s not in the report
An area not covered by the evaluation was the training provided through Nature Calling. National executive arts producer partners Activate Performing Arts provided two comprehensive training packages; one tailored for artists on how to work in protected landscapes and one training protected landscape staff in working with artists. Both programmes drew on real life experiences of delivering art and creative projects in landscapes.
The officer training was rolled out over six three-hour sessions from September 2024 – January 2025, aiming to demystify the process of commissioning artists and offer a practical approach to delivering planed outcomes. Over 50 members of staff attended from across National Landscapes, National Parks and National Trails. It offered insights on how to commission artists, reach new audiences and make work for protected landscapes, as well as addressing core topics such as funding, contracting and communications. Invited guests and case studies brought the training to life and attendees were able to hear work by the Nature Calling commissioned writers. From January 2025 many National Landscapes teams were ready to embark on their commission and this training really helped them to be ‘commission ready’.
The artist training was held in person over three days in two locations: Space 101 in Newbury, and at Walk the Plank’s creation space Cobden Works in Salford. The artists training again drew on case studies and hearing from Nature Calling commissioned artists and National Landscapes teams, who shared their perspectives on the sensitivities and considerations of applying art practice and making work in these settings. Many of the artists were not aware of National Landscape teams or the potential of developing projects in these locations. It was a great opportunity to reach out to new artists and encourage more open dialogue with the cultural sector.
Nature Calling was a fantastic summer of both large- and small-scale art projects happening with people in landscapes across the whole of England. It helped bring those landscapes to life and re-introduce the potential that an experience in nature can be a transformative thing.
