In Forest of Bowland National Landscape, artist Rob St John was commissioned to create Are You Lost?. The local producer, which supported the project was Lancaster Arts.

Are You Lost? A question apparently rooted in concern… fine if you’re looking confused with an upside-down map in your hands, but if you’re asked the question unbidden, what does that do for your feelings of belonging? This was something Rob wanted to explore.

The Forest of Bowland is a distinctive place. There are friendly villages but much of it feels cut off, accessible only by winding roads. Solitude is certainly part of the attraction: out on a windswept moor, it’s hard to believe that you are only a short distance from the university city of Lancaster to the north and the M65 corridor of busy east Lancashire towns to the south. This is the nearby nature for many people and it’s legally designated for the public good, so it’s important that access is not restricted to a narrow section of society.

Rob’s approach to engagement was wide ranging and place-based. Working in schools and community groups, holding workshops in public places like the Pendle Rise shopping centre and meeting one to one with farmers, he incorporated the input of over 1000 – mainly young – people in and around the Forest of Bowland highlighting the diverse voices and perspectives of the communities that live around the area. He held discussions, choir singing sessions, nest- and lens-making workshops and coordinated memory mapping, all coming together to generate the soundscape, words, film and textiles in the Are You Lost? installation which toured three sites across Bowland. Everything in Are You Lost? was co-created by Rob and the people and community groups together.

The young people he worked with, from Pendle YES Hub, This is Nelson youth group, Lomeshaye Junior School and Marsden Heights Community College in Nelson, Bowland High School, and SELFA in Bentham, steered the project. Those from the Pendle YES Hub asked to make their own podcast and conduct research into the history of the Forest of Bowland. Many of the stories they found spoke of the area’s long history of radicalism, something the young people felt inspired by and connected to. The research offered another way to explore the countryside half an hour from their doors, and visible from many of their bedroom windows, without even needing to put on their shoes. The YES hub is now looking at ways for the young people to create more podcasts, following their interests; people thrive when they can direct themselves.

In Dorset National Landscape, four groups created different body parts that were put together to make the enormous Consequences Giant. The community groups were all based in Yeovil, not far from Dorset National Landscape; Neurodiverse teenagers, refugee and asylum seeker families, adults with learning difficulties and primary school children took part. Many of those involved had not visited the National Landscape before. Writer Sita Brahmachari worked as part of the Radical Ritual team that created Consequences. She ran workshops for the different groups and encouraged them to develop narratives around identity, landscapes and belonging.

Jusna Mutafa of Thrive, a refugee and asylum seeker group, said: “Traditionally people of colour don’t feel comfortable in spaces like this, so it’s been really good to work with the different organisations that have arranged this, to bring people out into the countryside. I think that’s really helped. In future… people will go into those green spaces and feel like, well actually this is for everybody.”

Sue Dampney of Dorset National Landscape expressed the hope for Nature Calling: “Sometimes belonging to the landscape takes longer to build. But I hope with everybody, there’ll be that little seed of a good feeling about nature.”

Chilterns National Landscape commissioned artist Matt Rosier to create Luton Henge; originally also intended as a touring piece, there was such strong community interest in having the henge as a feature in the Marsh Farm area of Luton that the Chilterns team applied for planning permission for it to be sited there on a permanent basis.

Revoluton Arts, which is based close to the Luton Henge site supported local people to come together and form the ‘Henge Collective’ to look after the site and plan and book its events programme: this secures a future where the local community have real ownership of the site.

Soon after the henge was installed, people had already made it very much their own. A couple told artist Matt that Luton Henge had become one of the places they chose to visit on date nights. Luton Henge reflects the history of where it’s placed. The site came with its own earthwork: an existing BMX track which is still well-used, with bikers cycling around the stones. A few metres away is Waulud’s Bank, an ancient earthwork at the site of the source of the river Lea, a place central to the community, that different people have felt rooted in for thousands of years. With the Henge Collective already having been approached to host events as varied as yoga, reggae nights, raves and wakes, it will continue to be a place people gather and feel belonging into the future.  

You can find out more about how Luton Henge helped to build and strengthen local partnerships here.

The National Landscapes teams hope that those involved in the project will be able to return to the places they visited in the creation of the Nature Calling artworks. The experience of these projects has shown that engagements often fail to see the barriers that some of us experience. Sometimes you need an active invitation to know that you really are welcome. The act of making memories and enjoying repeat visits generates feelings of custodianship and care of a place, and shared experiences in community spaces can build true feelings of belonging too. We want to continue to help everyone to feel belonging and ownership in National Landscapes, in the hope that this will inspire more people to speak up about, protect and value these places, and to take good care of them in decades to come.